The Rejects (DC Comics Rebirth)
by TeamPhantomWriter
Summary: So this is a super hero group I originally thought of for the New 52 but now Rebirth has happened I'm starting to edit and write them into the Rebirth timeline. The Rejects, not your typical super hero group but they get the job done...eventually.
1. The Game

**Issue #1: The Game**

**The Bay, San Francisco, CA- 6:58p.m. **

**(Phantom)** You ever look in the sky and ask yourself, how did I get to this point in my life? Well I have no idea where you might be when you ask yourself that question but I think it's hilarious I ask myself that same question as I'm punching some low life criminal in the face several times demanding answers. Now you're probably wondering, why am I punching a low life criminal in the face several times demanding answers? Truth be told, I'm not exactly what you call a "normal" human being. You see, due to a freak accident I had when I was eighteen years old, I now possess incredible powers. Powers classifying me now as a meta-human, a term used to describe humans with supernatural abilities. With these abilities, I have dedicated my life to becoming a major crime fighting superhero and hopefully one-day be acknowledged by my City for it. But for the moment I'm what many call…well…let's just say I'm a hero that gets the job done in ways others would say, "The F*^% are you doing?", or my favorite, "What the Hell were you thinking?", either way it's bad. My two colleagues and I don't really have an official name for our group but I like to refer to ourselves as _**The Rejects**_ because we all come from rough backgrounds while at the same time we are not affiliated with any superhero group because of personal reasons that are probably best to be never told. My close friends know me as Dustin McCarthy, a brown haired handsome twenty-two year old Caucasian male but to the people and evildoers of the Bay Area, they know me as _**The Phantom**_.

It was a Saturday afternoon in the beautiful Bay of San Francisco and Dustin stood there at the docks in his purple and black Phantom outfit over by a large ruin down warehouse, holding a lowlife criminal with one arm and a loaded fist in the other.

**(Phantom)** The criminal I'm interrogating is a Lieutenant part of a huge drug cartel in San Francisco and I got an anonymous tip that a big trade was happening tonight. The only problem was, I didn't know where. But I'm sure this unlucky guy has a few things to say about it.

"Alright buddy," Dustin asked nicely, "Where's the drug cartel meeting tonight? And maybe I'll forget you were even part of i…augh wait a minute."

Dustin shakes the Lieutenant's body back and forth to see if he is awake but the Lieutenant was out cold.

**(Phantom)** You know usually this is the part where he would sing like a little bitch to me, and it's actually quite entertaining to watch at times if you ask me, but unfortunately what I wasn't expecting for this case was that I hit the Lieutenant "too" hard in the face and he "somehow" passed out on me. Gee, what a pansy, the last guy I interrogated went through seven punches before he went night-night, this punk only took three. I really hate when this happens and it's definitely looking like I'm going to have to do it the hard way now and search thoroughly in every warehouse on the dock.

Suddenly, the warehouse door behind Dustin burst open. About fifteen henchmen, armed with assault rifles and handguns, began to disperse everywhere on the dock. Dustin grins devilishly and turns around to appose them.

**(Phantom)** Or I can be the "Lucky Bastard" that I am and have my problems come to me.

"Gentlemen." Dustin said with a childish smirk as he dropped the criminal he was holding. "I just made your boss's Lieutenant my bitch without shedding a body tear of effort. Now, I'm going to give you all a choice. You all can either drop the guns and come in quietly. Or, I can beat the shit out of all you and still turn you guys in after. Your choice."

**(Phantom)** I knew that wasn't going to work.

The thugs glared at each other and then all fired their weapons rapidly at Dustin. Dustin deeply exhaled and used his intangibility to allow the bullets to go right through him.

**(Phantom)** They don't call me Phantom for nothing. I know it's a cheap tactic, but I'm not Superman where the bullets just bounce right off me, or the Flash where I can just outrun them. This tactic tends to be very useful at times as well because criminals are usually stupid enough to waste all their bullets on someone they'll never be able to hit.

Dustin scratched the back of his head and yawned as the last scumbag finally ran out of ammo. Dustin turned tangible again and looked around at everyone.

"You done?" Dustin asked out of curiosity. "Because I was really starting to doze off there." All the crooks became scared and shocked out of their minds as Dustin fists began to glow bright purple. "My turn."

**(Phantom)** The purple energy in my hands is raw power that I utilize in my body to scare off my opponents first and then channel it to unleash powerful beams of light to blast the f*%&amp; out of my opponents… I call it my Wraith Ray. You know cause it's ghost like and… ah you get the point.

Dustin used his ability of flight to lift off the ground and quickly dashed at the crooks head on. The first unlucky criminal attempted to try and hit Dustin with a crowbar but Dustin quickly grabbed the crowbar with his hand and forced it back to the enemy's face and caused him to be knocked out on the wall while his nose bled to his chest. Two henchmen tried to come at Dustin from both sides of his body with a nailed bat and a knife, so Dustin reacted by kneeling down and pretended to fire guns with his hands and used his Wraith Ray to blast one enemy through the wall of the warehouse and the other enemy into a stack of wooden box crates. Dustin mockingly blows his two "hand pistols" and then puts them away in his imaginary holsters before attacking them again.

**(Phantom) **Yep, these chumps are dropping like flies. I'm sure I'll have these guys done before…

Dustin's ear communicator suddenly began to ring.

**(Phantom)**…Jackson finds out. F%&amp;*! I am so going to get it.

"Dammit!" Screamed Dustin. "And just when I thought I was in the clear." Dustin looked at the crooks awkwardly. "Will you excuse me for a second boys?"

The criminals looked at other, shrugged and attacked Dustin anyways. Dustin rolled his eyes as he pressed the button on his ear communicator and turned intangible again for insurance.

"Heyyy... buddy. What's up?" Dustin said nervously while all the dumbasses around him attempted to try and beat him up.

"Dustin where the hell are you?! You were supposed to be at the rink for tonight's game thirty minutes ago!" screamed Jackson.

**(Phantom)** Oh yeah, did I forget to mention my daytime job is being a professional ice hockey player for the National Hockey League and it just so happened to be game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight for my team. Whoops. The guy that's blowing my eardrums out is my best friend Jackson Hyde or known by his hero name Nereid. Jackson is Atlantean, or at least that's what his mother told him. Turns out he was banished as a baby with his mother from Atlantis due to a family problem and has lived here in the States ever since. Jackson's mom died when he was nineteen so I decided to help him out when he was in financial trouble. Jackson's daytime job when he's not a superhero is acting as my personal manager. Unfortunately, he takes that job a little too seriously. Probably because he has to deal with the ridiculous amount of shit I get into all the time.

"Nereid." Dustin replied. "Just the person I wanted to talk to. Listen, tell coach I'll be there and ready to go by the time the game starts. I just ran into some…problems."

"Are you crime fighting right now?!" yelled Jackson.

"No, whatever made you think that?"

"I can hear the henchmen you're fighting in the background."

**(Phantom)** Shit.

"Alright you got me. I got a tip a drug trade was going on tonight and I thought now was the best time to stop it."

Jackson exhales stressfully.

"Out of all the nights you had to choose this one. Just get here quickly when you're done."

Jackson ended the conversation.

**(Phantom)** Boy Jackson did not sound too happy at all after that conversation. Oh well, I'll make it up to him later after I win the Stanley Cup (For the fourth time in a row by the way) and hand him a bottle of wine.

"Sorry about that gentlemen," Said Dustin as he turned his communicator off. "Where was I again?" Dustin looked down at the men who were still trying to punch him and it seemed they exhausted themselves out. "Oh yeah, I was kicking your ass."

Dustin quickly turned tangible and created a bubble with his Dustin energy and pushed back all of the crooks back into several different objects on the dock and knocked them all out. Dustin looked around to realize there were only three henchmen left, and decided to give one of them a smirk and hand signaled him to come at Dustin. The henchman screamed in rage and tried to punch Dustin but Dustin reacted by catching the henchman's arm and breaking it by elbow over-extension. The henchman fell on the ground bleeding excessively because the bone in his arm was out.

"My arm!" he screamed. "You broke my arm!"

Dustin got down on one knee and looked it at it.

"Daaamn, you should probably get that checked out." Dustin punched him in the face and knocked him out. "When you wake up."

The last two thugs were standing by a bunch of crates and they looked like they both weren't going to give up anytime soon. Dustin was about to strike the fat one when someone else suddenly took him out before he could from the crates above.

**(Phantom)** What the? Who is that?

The last low-life jumped and pulled his handgun out of fear from under his jacket. He fired his pistol several times at the unknown person but the person was able to deflect all of the bullets perfectly off from what looked to be silver bracelets.

**(Phantom)** Silver bracelets, now I definitely know who that is. I'm happy but at the same time I'm also not so happy she's here. You'll see why in a second.

She grabbed the last sorry ass from his neck and threw him across the dock and into the ocean. Dusti shook his head.

"I was wondering if Nereid called you to come find me. Requiem."

Requiem came out of the shadows to reveal her luscious beautiful red hair and her rocking Amazonian body.

"Phantom, I can't go into detail how stupid you are. You promised Nereid and I, you would hold off crime fighting for tonight so you can play the last professional hockey game of your life. You know sometimes I question if…"

**(Phantom)** Ah, Artemis Smith. Definitely the hottest but also the deadliest girl I have ever known. According to what she has told Jackson and I in the past, she is of Amazon decent. Or at least she believes to be. She was raised human all her life but she always knew she was different from everyone else. I guess bench-pressing more than the entire football team at her high school was a clear indication. At the age seventeen, Artemis's father revealed that a mysterious woman had left her as a baby on the doorstep, along with silver bracelets that she's currently wearing and a note stating Artemis is of Amazon decent. Even though she's never 100% confirmed that she is of Amazon decent, I do believe that she is Amazonian just by observation of her abilities over the years I've known her and believe me, it's scary.

Dustin came back to reality after zoning out and realized Requiem was still talking to him.

"Hello?" She questioned. "Dustin? Dustin are you even listening to me?"

"Hmm?" Dustin replied.

"Did you even listen to anything I told you just now?"

"Yeah…I heard everything what you said."

"Oh really?"

Artemis crossed her arms.

"What did I say then Dustin?"

Dustin began to sweat nervously.

"Oh you know…stuff. About me probably not listening and being irresponsible as usual."

Artemis looked to the ground and shook her head disappointedly.

"Alright." Dustin uttered. "I get it, I'm terrible at keeping promises. But that's just who I am, I can't change the way I think."

**(Phantom)** Shouldn't have said that. Artemis looks like she's about to blow a fuse.

"Phantom…" she replied angrily but calmed down right after. "Just start heading to San Jose before you blow our chance of making millions of dollars. I'll clean this mess up."

**(Phantom)** Not the response I was expecting but I'll take it.

"Thanks Artemis, you're the best. Oh and by the way. The trade hasn't happened yet, so you're probably going to want to stay here for the second wave. Have fun!"

**(Phantom)** Gotta love Artemis, she's like that sister I always wish I had.

Dustin gave Artemis a little salute and flew up into the air and darted towards San Jose. As Dustin was flying to San Jose, he notices the time was 7:20.

"Ten minutes. I've got plenty of time." Said Dustin with a cocky attitude.

Dustin kicked up the after burners and flew even faster towards his destination. Back to the docks, Artemis sighed out of stress and began to grab every knocked out henchmen and put them in a circle for the cops later to pick up.

**(Requiem)**Why is it every time I feel like Dustin is not going try and pull anything stupid for a day, he goes ahead and pulls off this crap? Although, despite his genuine stupidity. Dustin does care about this city enough to risk a playoff game to stop a drug cartel trade. So I guess cleaning his mess up won't bother me that much. I'll still scold him later though.

Over in the ocean, a large boat comes floating in and a large bright light then flashes Requiem. Requiem is confused and looks over.

**(Requiem)** What the heck? Wait, didn't Dustin say something about the trade never happened yet?

Several men with assault rifles began to pile out of the boat as they looked around and were shocked to what they saw.

"What happened to all the men?" Demanded one of the men. "Find out who did this!"

**(Requiem)** Guess that's my cue.

Requiem walks out more into the light and reveals her self to the next wave of henchmen.

"Gentleman." Requiem said confidently. "I'm going to give you two choices. Drop the guns and give up nice and quietly. Or don't drop them and we can have ourselves a nice little brawl. Your choice, and I really hope you choose the second one."

One henchman fires his assault rifle once and Requiem quickly reacts by deflecting it cleanly with her silver bracelet somewhere else.

"Brawl it is." Requiem said with a grin as she grabbed a long wooden board on the ground and attacks the henchmen.

**SAP Center, San Jose, CA- 7:25p.m.**

The SAP Center was packed with excited fans all around the outside and inside of the arena, waiting for the game to start. Inside the home team locker room stood two people. One person was the coach, a large old man who was wearing a grey business suit, and looks like he was ready to rip somebody's head off. The other was Jackson, who was a tall, dark skinned young adult that had tied blonde dreadlocks. The coach blew a fuse on Jackson.

"Where the hell is he Hyde!?" He screamed. "The puck drops in five minutes and he's nowhere to be seen."

Jackson scratches the back of his head nervously and tries to come up with an excuse as to why Coach's favorite player isn't here.

"Don't worry coach." He replied. "He'll be here soon, he just had a serious…'emergency' to tend to."

The coach shakes his head and points at Jackson's face.

"He better be here by the time the puck drops Hyde. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

The coach leaves the locker room and Jackson reacts by pulling out his cell phone and dialing Dustin's number.

"Come on Dustin pick up." Jackson muttered.

As the phone rang, another phone is also heard ringing in the room. Jackson looks at the door and notices Dustin walking in, holding his phone up in the air to let him know he's here. Jackson hung up the call and gave Dustin a fat dirty look.

"Well it's about damn time!" He whined. "And you couldn't find the time to come here with out wearing your suit?"

**(Phantom)** He does have a good point but I'm about to own him in a second.

"I improvise on the fly, Jackson." Dustin replied.

Dustin used his intangibility to get out of his crime-fighting suit quickly and then used that same ability to slip right through into his hockey pads and uniform.

**(Phantom)** Like that, I'm ready to go and play a hockey game for the last time with three minutes left to spare.

Dustin gave Jackson a cheerful look and Jackson reacted by rolling his eyes at him.

**(Phantom)** He knew I owned him, he just won't admit it.

"Coach is waiting at the bench for you." Jackson replied. "And he's not happy either."

Dustin reacted by throwing his hand out.

"Please, coach is always never happy. But I know what'll cheer him up."

"And what's that?"

"Another ring."

Jackson raised his brow at Dustin.

"I love how you think you're going to win this game before the game has even started."

Dustin grabbed his hockey stick from the rack.

"Hey, it's Gotham. We'll beat them."

Jackson takes a deep breath to relieve his stress.

"I hope so Dustin. We have a lot of money on the line here."

**(Phantom)** That reminds me.

"Oh, speaking of on the line. Tell Dick Grayson the bet is still on from last week. If I win, I get to visit the Bat Cave."

"The Bat Cave? You don't think he's honestly serious about that."

Dustin got into Jackson's face.

"Does this look like a face that's not serious?"

Jackson squinted his eyes and backed away from Dustin.

"What's the bet if you lose?"

Dustin smiled at Jackson.

"Probably best if you didn't know."

Jackson rolled his eyes at Dustin again as he quickly left the locker room and onto the ice before Jackson could say anything else.

**Later…**

The hockey game was in the middle of the second period, and San Jose was leading Gotham 5-1. On the stats board below the jumbotron, Dustin McCarthy's stats read 2 Goals 3 Assists &amp; 23 Hits. On the ice, one of the players from Gotham skated down the neutral zone to try and get past the defenders. The player miraculously gets past both the defenders and is about to get a chance to score a goal. That is, until Dustin McCarthy came flying in on his skates and checks the Gotham player so hard he gets lifted off the ice and falls on the back of his neck.

The SAP Center crowd reacts by getting off their feet and cheering for the big open ice hit by their star player. Dustin steals the puck and skates down the ice.

"Yeaaauuh!" Celebrated Dustin. "Damn I'm going to miss playing this game."

A player on Gotham tries to check Dustin when he had the puck but Dustin cuts back last minute to allow his hip to fly forward and hip checks the Gotham player straight to the ground while also keeping the puck still.

"Uh! Get off me! I'm untouchable!"

Inside one of the game boxes on the first level, Jackson stood there cross-armed watching Dustin with a joyful smile. Jackson looks to the side and notices Artemis had finally arrived from Dustin's mess she had to clean up and was wearing her disguise, a blonde wig and secretary outfit with glasses.

"You finally made it." Said Jackson.

"Yeah." Replied Artemis. "No thanks to Dustin."

"What took you so long?"

"Another wave of henchmen appeared for the trade and I couldn't just let them go."

"So you kicked their ass's?"

"They weren't even a challenge. How's Dustin doing right now in the game?"

On the ice, Dustin cuts back on the defender and gets an open shot on the goalie. Dustin fires the puck with a strong wrist shot and roofs the puck in the corner of the net. The crowd roars in celebration as the goal horn sounds off and Dustin knee slides on the ice.

"Let's Go!" Screamed Dustin. "Let me hear you San Jose! Get Loud!

Hats began to fly in everywhere on to the ice as the crowd celebrated Dustin's hat trick goal and San Jose's sixth goal of the night by throwing their hats.

"Does that answer your question?" Jackson said with a smirk.

Artemis responded by smiling but looks down at the game as if she was bothered. Jackson read Artemis's expression.

"Something upsetting you Artemis?"

"Huh? No, I just…"

"What?"

"I've been thinking a lot lately. About, well…" Artemis pulls her arm sleeve up to show off her silver bracelet with an Omega symbol imprinted on it. "The truth. I have to know Jackson, if what my adopted father revealed to me those years ago are true and that I am of Amazon decent. Then we should try to pursue that mystery and solve it after Dustin finishes his career tonight."

Jackson walks up to Artemis and grabs her arm to examine the bracelet more thoroughly.

"I know it must be difficult, wanting to know so badly." Said Jackson. "And believe me, I feel your pain on that one. I've always wanted to know my Atlantean culture, but my mother swore to me before her death to never seek or travel to Atlantis."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure, I really never understood all these years. But what seemed to make me worry though, was the way she used to tremble when I brought it up. Almost as if every time I mentioned Atlantis to her, she was trying to protect me from something."

"Protect you? Like some sort of threat?"

"Or the truth of a secret she doesn't want me to know. My mother clearly stated to me that I was to never return to Atlantis, until Atlantis… wants me to return there. So to answer your question or should I say request, I would gladly try to help you confirm your life's greatest mystery but…"

"But?" asked Artemis confusingly.

"I'm not sure if I'm the right person you should be asking this request to. I think the person you need to convince on this request, is that guy we all know and love over there."

Jackson points at the jumbotron screen above the ice to get Artemis's attention to it and the two-watched Dustin continue to play. Back on the ice, the players were preparing for another faceoff on the ice. Dustin was skating to the right wing side of the faceoff circle while also trying to get the crowd going even more. The player that rivaled Dustin on Gotham rolled his eyes and when Dustin got close enough, he trash talks to him.

"Hey, you know you're the biggest disgrace in the league." He said.

"What?" Dustin replied as if he didn't hear him.

"I said you know you're the biggest disgrace in the league."

"What?"

"I said! You're the biggest dis-."

"Hey buddy you gotta speak up. I can't hear you because all I hear is TALENTLESS coming out your mouth."

The Gotham player took Dustin's taunt personally and drops his gloves.

"That's it!" He screamed. "I'm putting my god damn fist in your mouth to shut you up for good."

"Buddy. You just f&amp;%$ed up big time."

Dustin also drops his gloves and signals the heated Gotham player to come at him. The crowd reacts by standing on their feet while also chanting one name several times.

"MCCARTHY! MCCARTHY! MCCARTHY!" The crowd would chant.

**(Phantom)** Okay Dustin, remember, light punches. You don't want to kill this hot head now.

The Gotham player tries to sock Dustin without grabbing him but Dustin casually skates to the side and knocks the Gotham player out with one punch. The crowd roared even louder as Dustin skated to the Penalty Box, giving the crowd an experience they'll never forget.

**(Phantom)** Oh yeah, we're partying tonight for sure.

**The Bay, San Francisco, CA- 10:55p.m. **

The moon shined bright over the bay of San Francisco, as Artemis and Dustin sat there on the deck of Dustin's nice house on the mountainside by the Golden Gate Bridge, taking in the view while sipping on wine. Jackson comes outside onto the deck as well and does a stretch while yawning.

"That was some game you played tonight Dustin." said Jackson as he poured himself another glass of wine.

"Yeah, considering you went crime fighting before the game." said Artemis but also gave Dustin a dirty look after.

Dustin looked back at the ocean trying to avoid the intimidation that Artemis was attempting to inflict upon him. Dustin grabbed his glass of wine and twirled the wine around a little.

"I'm just happy everything turned out the way it did." Dustin replied. "I earned a lot of money from winning a fourth Stanley Cup title, I saved the Bay from a serious drug cartel trade and…I get to visit the Bat Cave the next time I visit Gotham."

Jackson took another sip of his wine and he looked a little too intoxicated after.

"What if." Jackson asked. "You changed your mind on being a superhero…and stuck with ice hockey instead."

"No thanks." Dustin replied. "I made enough money tonight for the three of us so that we will never have to worry about a day job ever again. Now we can focus strictly on what goes on in the Bay or even parts of the world that need help 24/7."

Jackson took another sip of his drink.

"Suit yourself. You could have been the best player in the world if you kept playing from where you're at."

Jackson left the deck stumbling, bumped into a wall on the way out and then walked to his room.

**(Phantom)** Damn, I know Jackson's drunk and all but he's absolutely right. All the sports analysts in the world for the last four years have always said the same thing about me. They say I'm supposed to be the next Gretzky or Lemieux, or perhaps even better. But every time I hear all those comments, I always think of HIM.

Dustin looked back at the Bay disappointed. Artemis analyzed Dustin and Dustin knew at that moment he was giving off an indication something was wrong. Artemis got closer to Dustin.

"Something troubling you?" Artemis asked in concern. "I thought this is what you wanted?"

"It is." Dustin replied. "But being a Pro in the NHL was always my dream in life and to realize I could be a legend in the game is just...heart breaking."

"Then why don't you just play hockey?"

Dustin raised his hand up to show off his abilities to create Phantom energy, make himself intangible, and turn invisible.

"Because, ever since I had my accident at Cadmus Labs in Metropolis. I just…haven't been the same. The way I act, the habits I've created and the lifestyle I live in. Besides, with these powers I'm able to help and protect the people of the Bay Area from thugs and criminals."

Artemis grabbed Dustin's arm.

"That's very thoughtful of you to say, considering that most of the words that come out of your mouth are terrible one liners."

**(Phantom)** Not going to argue that.

"But I've known you long enough to know something else is bothering and I'm the only one who doesn't know your background. You can tell me anything."

**(Phantom)** She was right; I haven't been honest to Artemis enough and I think it was time for me to let her know.

Dustin looks down at his wine glass and takes a sip.

"When I got drafted 1st round 1st pick as an eighteen year old in the NHL Draft for San Jose, I felt like the luckiest and happiest teenager on the planet. I couldn't believe it actually happened but there was one person who did believe it could happen."

"Who? Mother? Father?"

"Hell no. My parents always thought if I wasn't a scientist like them, then I'm dead to them, especially to my Dad, the real definition of a total prick. In other words, I didn't really have a loving relationship with them."

Artemis was a little shocked by that statement.

"Talk about harsh parenting. Then who was it?"

"My little brother Sean, he always supported me in everyway possible for hockey. It was almost as if it was both our dreams."

"I didn't know you had a younger brother."

"I don't usually talk about him."

"Why? I feel like this would be something he would want you to do. Can I meet him sometime?"

**(Phantom)** Everything got awkward for me as my heart sank from that last remark. How should I tell her?

"You don't understand. My parent's weren't the only ones that were killed the day I had my accident at Cadmus labs. Before the accident happened, I came to my parents with Sean to let them know about my great achievement. You want to know how they reacted to it? They gave me a look of disappointment as if I had shamed our family. They handed me a form that allowed them to legally disown me and be separated from the family tree. Those two bastards always neglected me and then they lay that shit on me. Anyways, while I argued with them, the experiment they were working on exploded and the building began to crumble. My parents and all the scientists were the first to go. I tried to get out with Sean but before we could get out…my little brother...sacrificed himself to protect me from an oncoming chunk of concrete ceiling."

Artemis gasped and placed her hand on her mouth.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

A tear ran down Dustin's cheek but quickly rubbed it away so Artemis wouldn't see.

"It's alright Artemis, it's never an easy topic to talk about. So after Sean died, it was then that energy of the experiment spread and it mutated me into what I am today. Only a few people know what happened to me but everything else about my previous life was completely erased from my personal database. In other words, according to the United States my parents and brother never existed. But enough about that, I want to know what you want to do, Artemis."

"Me?"

"Yeah, we've always done what Jackson and I want to do and it seems unfair you usually never have a say in matters. Plus, we have all the free time in the world now. So Artemis, what do you want to do?"

Artemis looked down at her silver bracelet and then looked back to Dustin.

"Now that you mention, I want to know if I am truly of Amazon decent Dustin. It's been my life's greatest question and I can't wait any longer to find out."

Dustin smiled back at Artemis.

"Then Themyscira is where we will go tomorrow." Dustin and Artemis heard the sound of Jackson puking in his bathroom. "But first we'll need to go to the Pharmacy in the morning for Jackson."

Artemis and Dustin laughed at that last statement as they continued to drink the rest of their wine while staring at the moonlight.

**How will the trip go for the Rejects?**

**Next Issue: The Amazons**


	2. The Amazons

**Issue #2: The Amazons**

**Downtown, San Francisco, CA- 7:25 a.m.**

The streets of San Francisco are busy this morning, as the cars were stuck in traffic and pedestrians crowded the sidewalks. Over at a Pharmacy Store, Dustin and Artemis are waiting in front of the window for someone. As the two waited, occasionally a fan would notice Dustin on the sidewalk and would either wave at him or give him a high five for his amazing performance the night before.

(Phantom) Seems the fans are happy today. My buddy Jackson however, not so much.

"What's taking him so long?" asked Artemis.

Dustin rolls his head to the other side to look at Artemis.

"This is Jackson we're talking about here." Replied Dustin. "Chances are he's probably still extremely hungover and having a hard time trying to find the Advil."

While the two continued to talk, a random guy on the sidewalk wearing a hockey jersey notices Dustin and gets excited.

"Oh my god it's you!" he screamed. "Right? Dustin McCarthy."

(Phantom) Oh no, not this kind of fan.

"Always nice to meet fans." Dustin nodded.

"Oh man, am I the luckiest fan or what? So, I don't mean to bother you or anything but…can you please sign my jersey that has your name and number on it?"

(Phantom) No.

Dustin looks at Artemis and she nudges him to do it.

"Sure, why not." Dustin replied.

The fan hands Dustin a pen and Dustin signs his autograph on the number with a little happy face next to it.

The fan reacts extremely happy.

"Ah D, you're the best man! Thank you." And gave Dustin a fat long hug.

"Uhh, anytime buddy." Dustin responded awkwardly and patted the fan on the back.

Dustin looks at Artemis, and it seems Artemis was laughing at what was happening to Dustin.

(Phantom) Okay buddy, you can stop now. This hug is, REALLY staring to get awkward. I just hope this guys doesn't…No, he didn't.

The fan stops hugging Dustin and walks away happily. Artemis looks at Dustin to notice he was seriously disturbed by something.

"What's up with you?" Artemis asked in concern. "

"I'm hoping that was an IPhone poking me in his pocket." Dustin replied disgustingly. "Because if it wasn't, I think that dude popped a boner when he hugged me."

Artemis got a little disgusted but then she smirked at Dustin.

"Well then, I guess now you know how I feel every time you hug me."

Dustin gave Artemis a dirty look.

"What are you talking about? I don't do that."

"Oh yeah, what about that time at the beach?"

(Phantom) She still remembers!

Dustin's face turned extremely red of embarrassment.

"Hey! That could have happened to any guy! You were wearing an extremely tight two-piece bikini that day! And you promised you wouldn't tell anyone."

Artemis smirks

"And I still haven't."

At that moment, Jackson exits the Pharmacy door still hungover as ever and walks to Dustin and Artemis while swallowing several Advil pills from the capsule he had bought.

(Nereid) My head hurts and my body aches, I'm definitely sleeping on the plane ride there. No way I am in the mood to anything today, nor am I in the mood to deal with Dustin's shit either.

Dustin starts to snicker.

"Feeling a little better now big guy?"

(Nereid) See what I mean.

Jackson grabs his aching head.

"I will be in a few hours."

"You know Jackson, I find it real ironic that your eel tattoos protect you from every sort of toxin in your body, except for alcohol. Who would have known?"

"Yeah, real ironic. So how do we plan on getting to Themyscira?"

"Dustin bought a small private jet this morning." Replied Artemis. "So we're heading to the airport right now to pick it up. Dustin and I also agreed we would rotate turns on piloting the jet to Themyscira so the other one can rest."

"Okay, next question. Where is Themyscira located?"

Dustin pulls out his phone.

"I texted Dick last night to see if he knew where it was and I guess he was able to get his hands on some of Batman's old files and figure out the location."

"Dick willingly did that for you last night?" asked Artemis.

"Yes ART-E MIS, Dick willingly did that for me last night…also he likes challenges and that's why he did it." Dustin points to a map on his phone of the location. "It's located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean around this specific region."

"The Atlantic!" Jackson screamed. "That's all the way across the country."

Dustin pats Jackson's chest.

"Yep, better hope those pills knock you out."

"Was there anything else Grayson told you?" Artemis asks.

Dustin starts to think and scratches his facial hair.

"Well, he did mention about the time he whistled at an Amazon warrior when he was still Robin and boy let me tell you…"

"Stop!" replied both Artemis and Jackson.

"I think we're good." Uttered Artemis. "Lets just head to the airport."

**San Francisco International Airport- 7:55p.m.**

Over in one of the hangars at the airport, Artemis was dealing with the expenses of the jet at the front counter; Jackson was still in a lot of pain from his hangover and lounged on the couch; and Dustin was busy talking to two flight attendants that were off duty.

"Okay Miss Smith." Said the man at the counter. "Here are the keys to the jet and it's all yours."

"Thank you so much." Replied Artemis. "COME ON YOU TWO LETS HEAD OUT!"

"Hmmmm…" Moaned Jackson.

"Now Jackson! You can sleep on the plane. Let's go Dustin!"

Dustin however was ignoring Artemis and was continuing to mingle with the two flight attendants.

"Yeah." Said Dustin as he flexed his arm for the flight attendants. "I just won my fourth Stanley Cup title in a row last night, no biggie. So um, who here is down to fu- Yoww!"

Artemis grabbed Dustin by the ear and started to drag him to the jet. The flight attendants were shocked and placed their hands on their mouth.

"Let's go, Lover Boy..." Said Artemis with an irritated tone.

"NO! Wait!" Screamed Dustin. "I haven't asked for their digits yet!"

"There's plenty of fish in the sea Dustin."

"But I have a thing for red heaaaaaaaaaaaaads!"

**Four Years Ago…**

**Gotham University, Gotham, NJ**

In the room of one of the dorms at the campus, Dustin and an unknown person with black hair were preparing themselves to go somewhere important.

"Big day today for you McCarthy." Said Dustin's roommate.

"Yeah." Replied Dustin as he fixed up his tie. "Can't wait."

"You nervous?"

"A little bit. Richard what if I don't get drafted to the NHL at all and I'm stuck having to go here for four years. Especially during the summer."

"What's wrong with having to actually go to college for four years?"

"Because I didn't exactly get here by intelligence, that's why."

"Well, that explains why in Bio you thought photosynthesis was a type of way to duplicate photos."

Dustin squinted his eyes at Richard but continued to speak.

"Besides, if I get drafted now, I can live a life filled with riches, fame, and most of all glory."

"Now who wouldn't want that?"

"Someone crazy obviously." Dustin looks at his phone shocked. "Shit! I'm going to be late."

"Late for what? The draft doesn't even start five hours from now."

Dustin opened the door while popping some gum in his mouth.

"My little brother Sean is getting out of science camp in a few minutes and I thought since he's just as excited as I am for today's big day, we'd treat ourselves to some nice food before the event."

"Well have fun Dustin, I won't be back here till tomorrow morning so I'll see you then. Good Luck."

"Whoa, whoa whoa whoa…whoa. Where are you going tonight that's so speci-ahhh, wait a minute I know what're you're doing tonight Grayson."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, you're going on a date with that red head I saw you with the other day. What was her name again, Tiffany? No. Brooke? That sounds close. Ashley? Okay that definitely doesn't sound right."

"Barbara."

"Barbara! I knew I would remember. You're going out with her tonight…and not coming back home?" Dustin places his hands on his cheeks. "Hmmm, I wonder what Dick is going to do tonight."

Dick smirks.

"Have a good time Dustin."

"Right back at you Dick. I'm telling ya, this will be a day I will never forget."

**Present…**

**Above the Atlantic Ocean- 4:35p.m. **

Artemis is inside the cockpit flying the jet while Jackson was passed out on the couch and Dustin was nowhere to be seen for some reason. Artemis's eyes slowly began to shut and yawns.

(Requiem) Dazing out already Artemis? I thought you were better than this. But then again, I have been flying for quite awhile. Dustin's turn it is.

"Hey Dustin!" Artemis yelled. "Can you take a turn at flying the jet now? I'm dozing off over here…Dustin?"

(Requiem) Oh no, he better have not.

Artemis presses the autopilot button and gets up from her seat a little irritated. Artemis walks up to Jackson and kicks his feet lightly.

"Jackson. Where's Dustin?" she asked.

Jackson wakes up a little.

"Wha…Where's Dustin? I…I think he's in the back of the plane."

(Requiem) Figured he'd be back there.

Artemis nods and walks through a curtain to enter the back of the plane. The back of the plane was a VIP lounge and it was full of stripper poles and see section seats.

"Dustin?" she asked again.

Artemis looks down on the floor to see Dustin lying on his stomach with several empty mini alcoholic bottles around him. Artemis sighs in disappointment.

(Requiem) Just as I unfortunately suspected…I should have made him fly first.

"Dustin…God dammit."

Artemis kicks Dustin in the side of the stomach and Dustin reacts by slowly getting up. Dustin gives Artemis a goofy look.

"Heyyy Arte-mas." He responded. "Yu…you're not goin to be-weave dis…they have or 'hic up' I sorry WAS a mini fridge on this plane…and it contained all my favorite booze…i…in the world."

Dustin falls back on his drunken ass into a chair and laughs strangely. Artemis rolls her eyes and looks at all the mini bottles on the floor.

"That's because you requested the airline to fill this jet up with all the specific booze you love to drink. Which I am now irritated that you did."

"…Oh yeahs." Dustin uttered.

Artemis reaches down and picks up one of the bottles.

"How many of these did you have?" she asked.

Dustin started to think intensely.

"Well…how many are left in the fridge?...Arte-mas."

Artemis looks into the fridge.

"Four. Why?"

"Okay good… because there were like thirty of them earlier"

"You had twenty-six shots of alcohol! Dustin I need you to help me fly this plane. God I can't believe I even thought you could…"

"Hey, hey and hey…has anyone ever told youuuuu…you look really hot when you're angry?

(Requiem) That's it. I have had enough of Dustin's shit for one day.

Artemis got extremely angry by that last statement and smacked the back of Dustin's head.

"Ow!" Dustin moaned.

"GET YOUR ASS TO THE FRONT OF THE PLANE AND KEEP WATCH FOR ANY SORT OF ISLAND BEFORE I SHOVE MY ANGRY SANDLE UP YOUR ASS!" screamed Artemis.

"Alright! Alright! I'm goings." Dustin replied as he got up. "Couldn't be that hard to drive a plane in my condition."

As Dustin stumbled to the cockpit of the plane, Jackson sat there on the couch shaking his head while watching Dustin attempt to reach the cockpit.

(Nereid) I thought I was wasted last night. Dustin really knows how to take it up another level.

Artemis appears next to Jackson.

"And don't even think about taking the plane off autopilot Dustin!" she screamed.

"Let me guess, he got into the mini fridge again, didn't he?" asked Jackson.

Artemis nods and pinches her eyes.

"Sometimes I wish he would act his age." She uttered.

"Same here. How many did he drink this time?"

Artemis sighs disappointedly.

"Twenty six."

"Twenty six! How is he not dead?"

"He's an alcoholic Hyde, remember?"

"Well yeah but that's still a ridiculous amount of booze, regardless who you talk to.

(Nereid) I wonder if Dustin has ever had to get his stomach pumped out.

Jackson looked up at the cockpit to see Dustin twiddling with his fingers in his seat but then loses his balance and falls off the chair laughing hysterically. Jackson looks back at Artemis.

"Dude is a complete moron when he's at that level of intoxication." He said. "But then again he's still a moron without it."

While Artemis and Jackson continued to discuss, Dustin got back into his seat to look out the window and it was then he spotted an island dead ahead and reacted surprised.

"Hey you…two. I think the island… found me."

Dustin laughed hysterically again while Artemis and Jackson quickly rushed up to the cockpit to see the island.

"Jeez Dustin, you can't even formulate a sentence correctly anymore." Said Jackson while he face palmed.

Artemis places her hand on Dustin's shoulder.

"I think it's best if I land the plane."

"You're a plane!...Okay, I'll get up." Replied Dustin.

Before Dustin could get out of his seat, the plane was affected for some reason and deactivated as if it was hit by an electromagnetic pulse. Artemis and Jackson are shocked and try to figure out what's wrong with the plane. Then the two instantly stare at Dustin with suspicion.

"What did you do Dustin?!" screamed Artemis.

Dustin flips out.

"Oh sure! Blame it on the damn drunk guy in the group! I haven't touched shit…lately."

Artemis shoves Dustin out of his seat and mans the controls of the jet.

"We're losing altitude fast!" She screamed. "I can't keep her in the air. Dustin! Faze us out of here!"

"Okay…" Dustin replied while grabbing Artemis and Jackson. "Here we go."

Dustin stood there still with a blank look and did absolutely nothing. Artemis and Jackson slowly look at Dustin wondering why he hasn't fazed them out yet.

"Dustin?" Asked Artemis

"What?

"Aren't you going to do it?"

"Do what?...Oh yeah that's right."

Dustin was about to faze the two out but for some reason still stood there and did nothing.

"Wait, what do you want me to do again?" asked Dustin.

Artemis and Jackson get frustrated and Jackson grabs Dustin's shirt.

"Use your damn intangibility dumbass before you get the three of us killed!"

Dustin gives Jackson a dirty look.

"Say it don't spray it man."

Dustin uses his intangibility to faze Artemis and Jackson out of the jet. The three looked down and watched the jet nosedive straight into the ocean and explode. Dustin's facial expression became sad and tears began to roll down his cheeks. Artemis and Jackson are confused.

"What are you crying about?" asked Artemis.

Dustin sniffles.

"I'm going to miss that mini fridge."

Artemis and Jackson both face palm.

(Nereid &amp; Requiem) Idiot.

Dustin continued to fly above the ocean and towards the island. As soon as Dustin got to the island and was above the jungle, for some reason he started to not feel well, almost as if something was affecting his abilities. Dustin started to lose his grip on Artemis and Jackson.

"Say, since when did you two start to get heavier?" asked Dustin.

Artemis and Jackson got worried.

"You okay Dustin?" asked Jackson.

"I don't know… I feel like I'm losing my strength and grip for some reason."

Artemis looks at Dustin.

"Dustin I swear to every damn Greek God, if you drop us I will…!"

Before Artemis could finish her statement, Dustin drops Artemis and Jackson by accident and the two fall straight down into the jungle.

"I'm killing you for this Dustin!" Screamed Artemis.

Artemis and Jackson crash into several branches from the trees and eventually land on the ground. Dustin looks back in embarrassment.

"Whoops."

Dustin was about to turn around but for some reason his ability to fly wasn't working anymore and slowly descended into the jungle.

"Well shit."

Dustin crashes into several branches from the trees and lands straight into a fat puddle of mud.

"Ow." He uttered in pain.

(Phantom) So not schway.

**Meanwhile…**

Artemis and Jackson are getting up from being dropped at a different part of the jungle. Jackson gets up and takes a stick out of his dreads.

(Nereid) Well, despite being dropped to the ground from several feet in the air and crashing into several tree branches, leaving my body with several bruises and cuts; at least I don't have a hangover anymore.

Artemis gets up extremely pissed off with a twitch in her left eye and uses her arm to brush the leaves off her body.

(Nereid) Uh oh, I think I'm about to get an earful of Artemis's complaining in Three, Two, One…

"I'm going to kill him Jackson!" Screamed Artemis. "His alcohol problem has screwed us over for the last time!"

(Nereid) Maybe not the last, but something in my gills tells me this was different.

Jackson cracks his neck.

"As I much as I want to take my frustration on Dustin's stupidity." He replied. "I feel like the alcohol was not the reason for him 'accidentally' dropping us."

"What do you mean?"

"I know Dustin is incompetent to do the most simplest tasks when he's drunk or in some situations sober but I don't think he would intentionally drop us like that. Especially due to the fact he has super strength."

Artemis crosses her arms.

"Alright Jackson, then what do you think happened?"

"I'm not completely sure."

(Requiem) Well that was a great a way to start your argument Jackson.

"But hear me out Artemis, to me it seemed like something was causing Dustin to not be able to use his strength."

"That's not really convincing Jackson."

"I know it's not but just trust me. Let's just find Dustin first and then we'll discuss with him about his…problems."

"That is if we find him first. Remember we're on an island full of ancient Amazon Warriors, the chances of Dustin running into them are so high."

"Then let's hope we find him first."

(Nereid) I really hope Dustin doesn't try to do anything stupid if he does run into them. Because he's still really drunk, and when Dustin is really drunk and is exposed to extremely beautiful women, there's only one thought in his mind. Mingle.

Artemis and Jackson quickly venture through the jungle.

**Meanwhile…**

Over on the other side of the jungle, Dustin is still in the puddle of mud he landed into earlier. Dustin slowly gets up and stumbles a little when he tries to keep his balance.

"Whoa." He uttered. "I'm still…hammered? Damn I ne-ed to lay off the booze…Oh who am I kidding, I love booze…But not as much as tree."

Dustin notices his shirt is completely ruined with holes and mud stains.

"Well this shirt is no longer…any use to me."

Dustin rips his shirt off to reveal his crazy fit body and does a little stretch. Before Dustin could go anywhere, the sound of women laughing is heard nearby. Dustin gets curious.

"Could it be?"

Dustin goes through some of the plants in the jungle to discover a waterfall full of Amazonian women swimming and bathing, naked. Dustin's eye's became dinner plates and then bit his knuckle in excitement.

"Oh good lord, I think I died and went to super model heaven."

Dustin makes a fat grin on his face and walks to the waterfall casually, not realizing what sort of consequences he might face.

"Ladies." He said confidently. "Who wants to see a real man's body?" Dustin flexes his biceps. "POW! POW!" and then his abs after, "Shazam!" believing something positive might to happen after. "Like what you see?"

The Amazons instantly reacted hostile and one blonde Amazon grabs the nearest spear and points at Dustin.

"Intruder!" she screamed. "Arm yourselves!"

The Amazon threw her spear and it pierced a tree next to Dustin's face. Dustin is shocked and looks back at all the Amazons, who were putting their clothes back on and arming themselves. Dustin smirks as if he's confident about the next action he is about to do.

"Alright ladies. I see where this is going. I don't like where its going but I know WHERE its going. Now, I don't want hurt any of pretty goddesses."

Dustin stares at a red headed amazon with short hair aiming a bow and arrow at him.

"Especially you, I have a thing for attractive red heads. But I must warn all of you…I have incredible abilities…and a 2nd degree black belt in Wing Chun. Now I don't want to fight you dimes…but if you want to be difficult, I will be forced to take you all down…with this amazing power!"

Dustin tries to show off his Phantom energy but for some reason nothing happened. Some of the Amazon's reacted confused while some of them started to laugh. Dustin got embarrassed while staring at his hands and then got really worried.

(Phantom) DAFUQ? What do I do now?...IMPROVISION!

"Okay maybe not. But I have the reflexes of batman, and the speed of the Flash. You'll never hit me with that arrow."

As soon as Dustin finished his taunt, the Amazon with the red short hair released her arrow and it struck Dustin's leg instantly.

(Phantom) Time Out! You're probably wondering why I haven't felt any pain in my leg yet so let me explain to you in probably the best way possible I can. You see normally a person would be screaming in pain from taking an arrow to the leg but because I was still extremely intoxicated from before, it took me a few seconds to even realize an arrow had struck my leg. Let's see how I deal with this. Time In!

Dustin looked at the arrow that was lodged in his leg, confused as to why he hasn't felt anything yet.

"Ummm, well. I expected this to hurt a lot more. Why haven't I felt…Oh yeah that's right, my old friend alcohol. Making me invincible since High School."

At that moment several Amazons picked up their bows and arrows and prepared to open fire.

(Phantom) Time to go.

Dustin took out the arrow and quickly turned around and ran into the jungle screaming while all the Amazons chased him down with their weapons.

**Meanwhile… **

Over on the other side of the jungle, Artemis and Jackson were still going through the jungle when they heard the sound of someone screaming. Artemis turns around.

(Requiem) That was definitely Dustin, no guy screams like a bitch but him.

"That sounded like Dustin and I think he ran into the locals already." Artemis said irritated. "Jackson lets start heading over to that area now."

Jackson backed up and pulled out his water sabers while his eel tattoos glowed bright.

"I don't think he's the only one that ran into the locals Artemis." Replied Jackson.

Artemis looked over in the plants and noticed several Amazon warriors had surrounded the two. Artemis nudges Jackson.

"Lower your weapons Jackson."

"What?"

Artemis walks up to the Amazons.

"We surrender. Just don't hurt us."

One of the Amazons who was tall, bulky and had a red ponytail walks up to Jackson.

"Your weapons, please."

Jackson looks at Artemis and Artemis reacts by nodding. Jackson pouts and hands his water saber handles to the Amazon. The Amazon smirks.

"Shackle them."

Two Amazons walk up to Artemis and Jackson and lock the two up in shackles.

"Now take them to the palace. So we may discuss what to do with them."

The two Amazons shove Artemis and Jackson and the two began to walk with the group of Amazons.

**Meanwhile… **

Back to the other side of the jungle, Dustin is running for his life and struggling to get away from all the Amazons he accidentally pissed off earlier.

(Phantom) Uh oh. I think I'm going to puke…going to puke…I'm puking.

Dustin turns his head and unleashes a large amount of vomit out of his mouth while still running for his life. Dustin wipes his mouth and looks behind him but instantly ducks when an arrow almost hits him in the face.

"Damn!" he yelled. "You women are super freaks!"

(Phantom) You know, this would probably be the hottest thing that's ever happened to me. If it weren't for the fact they were TRYING TO KILL ME! And why aren't my powers still working, I could really use them right about now.

Another arrow came in and shot Dustin straight in the ass cheek.

(Phantom) You see what I mean!

"My ass! My beautiful ass! Why is it I feel the pain now!...Oh my god, I think I just figured out why they call it pain in the a-ahhh!"

Dustin accidentally stepped into a trap and gets snagged by the leg and hung upside down by a tree branch. Dustin struggles to try and get out of the vine but then stops to realize all the Amazon warriors had already surrounded him. Dustin smirks.

"Oh what the hell, this is probably the hottest thing that has ever happened to me before."

The blonde Amazon from earlier gave Dustin a dirty look and knocked him out with the handle of her sword.

"Men." She uttered to herself. "Take him to the cells Sisters!"

**Captured! What will happen to our heroes now?**

**Next Issue: Who is Artemis Smith?**


	3. Who is Artemis Smith?

**Issue #3: Who is Artemis Smith?**

**Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 6:06 p.m.**

The Royal Palace of the Amazons was an amazing view for Artemis and Jackson, as they walked up the steps still shackled and surrounded by Amazon warriors.

(Requiem) Wow, I can't believe I'm here. I'm actually really here on Themyscira. It's everything I imagined it would be, the exotic jungle, the clear perfect weather but most of all that view of the Royal Palace of the Amazons. Yep, everything exactly how I imagined, except for the part where I'm currently shackled in chains and have been taken prisoner with my friend Jackson by the Amazons. The Amazons also pursued our fearless dumbass leader Dustin and I am really worried that something not so great might have happened to him. My name is Artemis Smith, and I believe I am of Amazon decent and I will do anything that means necessary to prove it.

The two eventually reach the top of the palace and the Amazons force Artemis and Jackson on their knees. The bulky tall red headed Amazon with a long luscious pony tail from earlier, removes her helmet and stands in front of Artemis and Jackson.

"I am Aleka, head of security for Themyscira when the Queen is gone." She stated. "You two are trespassing on sacred ground. Especially this man."

Aleka pulls her dagger out from her leg pouch and holds it against Jackson's neck.

"Now, tell me your purpose of being here. Or I'll slit this man's throat."

Artemis got worried and Jackson started to sweat.

"Wait!" yelled Artemis. "We are here because of me."

Aleka removes her knife away from Jackson's throat and points it toward Artemis now.

"What is your purpose of being here?"

Before Artemis could answer, Aleka notices Artemis's bracelets as if she had seen them before. Aleka grabs Artemis's arm to look at the bracelet thoroughly.

"Where did you get these bracelets?" she demanded.

Artemis pulls her arm away.

"I've always had these, they've been mine since the day I was born." She replied.

Aleka got angry and drew her sword out.

"Liar! Tell me where you got those bracelets from!"

(Requiem) I know I'm going to regret this big time. BUT, NOBODY ever calls me a LIAR.

Artemis got up and looked at Aleka straight into the eyes.

"My mother left me with these bracelets when she decided to abandon me as an infant on the doorstep to a man I thought was my real father for seventeen years before finding out the real truth about myself. So if you want to call me a liar and have these bracelets back. You'll have to take them from my dead cold corpse first. And I'll have to warn you"

Aleka was shocked by Artemis's statement and lowered her sword.

"Your mother." She asked. "Who was she?"

(Requiem) Wow, I can't believe that actually worked.

"That's the problem." Artemis replied. "I never knew who my real my mother was. All I know from what my adoptive father told me before, when I decided to go on my own, was that she was originally from here. Do you know who she was?"

Aleka took a deep breath and put her sword away.

"Elpida. The woman that use to don those bracelets, her name was Elpida, your actual mother."

Artemis was astonished by the truth.

"So it is true. I am…"

Aleka places her hand on Artemis's shoulder.

"One of us sister. Welcome home."

Artemis shed a tear of happiness and Aleka reacts by wiping the tear and then hugging her. Aleka stops hugging her and gets up.

"I must say you do resemble a lot like your mother, not that I know whom you are. Though I'm not sure where the red hair came from but it is still a nice look for you. Come Artemis, we have much to discuss."

Artemis was excited at first but then remembers something.

(Requiem) Oh yeah, Dustin.

"Wait, before we discuss more matters Aleka." Said Artemis. "We actually have another friend that is also on Themyscira but he was 'accidentally' separated from us. You wouldn't happen to have found him by any chance?"

"Well I…"

An Amazon guard with blonde hair then suddenly interrupted Aleka.

"I think she refers to the bizarre male we just captured." She whispered.

Artemis and Jackson laugh a little bit to the remark.

"That's definitely him." Jackson uttered.

Artemis walks up to the blonde Amazon guard.

"Can you take us to where he is? We'd like to have him back."

The blonde Amazon guard shrugs her shoulders and signals Artemis and Jackson to follow her.

"If you insist." She utters.

**Four Years Ago…**

**Diner, Metropolis, DE**

Over at a diner in the city of Metropolis, Dustin and his little brother that looked very much like him Sean were waiting at a table for their food to arrive.

"You nervous?" Asked Sean.

"Nothing but a couple pancakes can't fix." Replied Dustin.

The waitress appears with Dustin and Sean's food.

"Here's your order of banana pancakes." Said the Waitress to Sean. "And here's…your four orders of chocolate chip pancakes."

The waitress hands Dustin his food.

"Thanks toots." Replied Dustin. "I'll be sure to hit you up first when I become famous."

The waitress was offended by Dustin's remark and smacks Dustin's face. The waitress storms off but Dustin quickly recovers from the slap and gets a quick look of the waitress's butt before she disappears.

"So worth it." Dustin grinned. "So, what did you want to talk about Sean?"

Sean placed his fork and knife down.

"It's about Dad." Uttered Sean.

"Oh something. What about him?"

"You know he was serious about that agreement he made with you before you left for college."

"Agreement? Sean it sounded more like an ultimatum when it came from him. And frankly, I couldn't care less what Dad thinks at this point. I have a possible opportunity to play in the big leagues and achieve that fame and fortune I always sought to earn-AND I did all of that without his help. If he wants to disown me, let him-but I guarantee you he won't do if I get drafted today."

**Present… **

**Cells, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 6:37p.m.**

The blonde amazon guard leads Artemis and Jackson down an extremely long grassy hill that turns into a burrow with several jail cells beneath it. All the cells were empty except for one, and that one just happened to be Dustin's. Dustin was hung upside down in the cell, tied up with vine rope around his body and the arrow was still in his ass. Dustin woke up from being knocked out and realized he had been captured.

(Phantom) Really Dustin? You're better than this. How on Earth did you get yourself captured by these extremely hot broads? Actually never mind that, why is the arrow still in my ass?

"Okay." Dustin uttered. "The jokes over now ladies, you can- take the arrow out of my ass now. It's-really starting to hurt."

The three amazon guards that are guarding the cells were snickering to Dustin's whimpering.

"Well look who finally woke up. I guess men aren't as tough as they look." Said the young Amazon guard with short red hair. "And here I thought we were in a for a treat when we spotted you."

Dustin struggled to not blow a fuse.

"Uggh, well excuse me for not realizing my powers don't work on this DAMN Island." Replied Dustin. "But I'm willing to bet if I did have my powers I would have totally wowed all of you."

The Amazon smirks and walks up to Dustin's cell.

"But- you didn't. And that's why you're in the cell and I'm out here bragging to my sisters about how I was able to put an arrow in to you. TWICE."

Dustin's face turns extremely red in frustration.

"So you were the BITCH that put an arrow in my ass and leg."

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?"

(Phantom) Holy shit this hottie is asking for it.

"Oh you are just a little shit starter, aren't you?" asked Dustin.

"What can I say? Picking fights has been in my blood."

One of the amazon guards notices the blonde amazon with Artemis and Jackson walking towards the cells.

"Alexa!" the other guard warned. "The Captain."

Alexa stopped taunting Dustin and salutes the blonde amazon.

"Captain Thea." She announced.

Thea responds by raising her hand up.

"At ease Alexa." She replied. "I'll be quick."

Artemis gets in front of Thea and points at Dustin.

"You see that guy right there?" Said Artemis. "We want him back."

Alexa and the two other Amazon guards look at Dustin who smiles happily and then back at Artemis confused.

"Are you sure you want him back?" Alexa replied.

"HEY!" Exclaimed Dustin in the background.

"Believe me, we know he's an idiot- but he's OUR idiot and we want him back."

Alexa shrugs and turns around to unlock the cell.

"Guess you're getting out of here." said Alexa.

"Does that sound like disappointment I hear?" replied Dustin.

Alexa rolls her eyes and cuts the rope with her sword to let Dustin fall straight onto his face.

"Thank you…" he uttered.

Artemis and Jackson run over to help Dustin out.

"Let's make things clear MAN, I don't like you and I have no reason to either."

"Fine! That makes two of us!"

Jackson walks over and grabs the arrow in Dustin's ass.

"This is going to hurt Dustin." he said.

Dustin gives Jackson a frustrated look.

"Just take it out already!"

Jackson pulls the arrow out of Dustin's ass and Dustin reacts by biting his lip and keeping all the pain he wants to scream out within himself. Dustin glared at Alexa as she watched him tough it out.

"I'm not wussin out, not in front of HER." He replied.

Artemis and Jackson roll their eyes and untie Dustin from the vine rope. Dustin gets up and stretches.

"So…" he uttered. "What did I miss?"

Artemis smirks.

"Turns out I was right." She replied. "My biological mother was Amazon, making me also Amazon too."

"Sick. I knew you had it in you."

"Right now I'm about to learn about my history. Care to join?"

"Sure, just find me something to wear and I'll join."

**Courtyard, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 7:48p.m.**

Aleka is giving Artemis a tour, with Jackson and Dustin following the two from behind. Dustin is going through the pockets of his old jeans as he wore a chiton around his waste. Dustin pulls out his wallet and phone.

"Damn, my phone got smashed when I fell to the ground earlier." Complained Dustin. "Good thing I got my wallet full of credit cards."

"Shhh!" Said Jackson. "I'm trying to learn here."

Dustin pouts at Jackson.

(Phantom) Bitch, like you're actually listening to this tour.

"Here we have the armory." Said Aleka. "Where you will probably spend most of your time finding the right weapon and armor for you Artemis."

Artemis looked at all the weapons and armor in astonishment. Artemis turned back to Aleka.

"Do I get to keep the weapons and armor after I choose them?"

Aleka nods and Artemis reacts even more excited. Aleka, Artemis and Jackson continue to move on but Dustin stays back because the amazon that was working at the anvil caught his attention. The amazon looked up at Dustin and Dustin reacts by waving while also giving her a smile.

(Phantom) She seems nice.

The amazon gives Dustin a stink eye, grabs the nearest pickaxe and throws it at the wooden pillar next to Dustin's pelvic region. Dustin frowns and put his head down.

(Phantom) Or not.

"What's the point of hitting on these goddesses if they're just going to throw shit at me." Dustin complained.

Continuing with the tour, Aleka leads Artemis and Jackson to the middle of the courtyard where a statue stood there. Artemis looks at the statue intrigued.

"She's beautiful." Said Artemis. "Who is she?"

Aleka exhales deeply.

"She WAS Queen Hippolyta." Replied Aleka.

"Was?"

Aleka nodded.

"Yes, sometime ago Queen Hippolyta was turned into stone by the goddess Hera and unfortunately- there is no way to change her back."

Artemis is saddened and stares at the statue of Queen Hippolyta.

"What about my mother Aleka? Is she still alive?"

"To be honest Artemis, I haven't seen your mother in over thirty years."

"What do you mean?"

"You see, your mother Elpida and many other Amazons like her, left the island thirty years ago with Queen Antiope to settle in a region of Egypt they called, Bana-Mighdall."

"When was the last time you heard from them?"

Aleka exhaled nervously.

"Since the day they left."

Dustin finally catches up to the group and notices Artemis and Jackson are shocked about something.

"What did I miss?" Dustin asked Jackson.

"Artemis's mother was part of a different group of Amazon's that left the island thirty years ago to a place called Bana-Mighdall."

"Bana-Mighdall? Where the hell is that located?"

"Somewhere in Egypt."

"Egypt! Well shit, we're going to need another jet if we're going to travel there."

Artemis began to get a worried look.

"So wait, if you haven't heard from them for so long." Said Artemis. "Why didn't you send out a messenger of some sort to check in?"

"Because Hippolyta forbid us all from contacting them, due to the feud she had with her sister Antiope at that time."

Artemis frowned but Aleka raised her chin up.

"Don't feel saddened sister. Your existence proves that they made it to Bana-Mighdall."

"But it still doesn't explain why my mother abandoned me."

"Instead of questioning your mother's reasoning, why don't you travel to Bana-Mighdall and seek out the truth yourself?"

Artemis's is still unsure.

"Come, let us get started on your training Artemis."

Dustin and Jackson look at each other and then Dustin raises his hand.

"Uh, question. What are we suppose to do?"

In the background, Alexa is walking with another Amazon and overhears Dustin's question.

"Maybe you should try and figure out how to not be a wimp?" Taunted Alexa. "Or better yet, find a way not to get hit by an arrow. Especially in your ass region."

Dustin's eyes are filled with hatred and then throw his hands in the air out of frustration.

"Augh! You know what, I don't need to take this. I work way too freaking hard to deal with this crap. I'm out of here."

Dustin walks away to go do his own activity, muttering to himself irritated. Alexa waits for Dustin to leave and then looks back at Artemis and Jackson.

"Out of all the men that have stumbled onto this island." Whispered Alexa. "Never have I ever met a man so strange in my life."

"Believe me, you haven't seen strange yet." Replied Jackson.

"Really? Then what do you call that?"

"His hangover." Uttered Artemis. "But Dustin's really not that bad of a guy, he just comes from a rough family background."

(Requiem) Even though his ego is probably the trait that needs to be fixed the most.

"Rough family background? Please, how rough are we talking here?"

"His parents always neglected him and never appreciated the achievements he accomplished." Replied Jackson. "And he sort of watched his family die in front of him if that doesn't convince you."

Alexa is a bit astonished by that last statement about Dustin.

"Really? I would have never known that."

"If you are finished discussing here Artemis." Said Aleka. "We can start your training now if you would like?"

"Yes! '_Cough_' I mean, that would be nice." Replied Artemis. "Let's get to it."

**Amphitheatre, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 8:37 p.m.**

The sun has set and the moon is out, shining the entire Amphitheatre where several Amazons are training. Artemis is in the middle of the Amphitheatre, while Aleka and three other Amazon's are several yards ahead of Artemis, aiming arrows at her with their bows. The four release the arrows and Artemis reacts by placing her arms up and deflecting all the arrows away with her bracelets flawlessly. Dustin and Jackson are in the seats of the Amphitheatre, watching all the action happen and reacted cheerfully when Artemis deflected all the arrows away.

"She's got that down pretty well." Said Jackson.

"Yeah, but I'm anxious to see how she does tomorrow with sword training." Replied Dustin.

"Why's that?"

"Because swords are awesome that's why."

Jackson smirks.

"You're jealous aren't you?"

Dustin is shocked nervously.

"What? No, I'm not jealous…I got monk training in the Himalayas to use a katana remember?"

Jackson continued to stare Dustin down.

"Okay maybe a little because it's ancient Greece warfare…"

Jackson still stared at Dustin, waiting for the response he wanted to hear.

"Alright you got me I'm extremely super jealous of Artemis!"

Jackson laughed.

"Satisfied? I use to dream about training like an ancient Greek warrior all the time in high school."

"Were you a nerd in high school Dustin?" asked Jackson.

"Don't be ridiculous Jackson, I wasn't a nerd in high school… I just kept the fact I was super nerd a secret from every student."

"So what you're saying is, you were a closet nerd in high school."

"If you want to go there, yes. Believe it or not, the idea for my hero name and costume was actually inspired by a comic my little brother and I use to read back in the day."

Jackson's eyebrows were raised after that statement.

"That I didn't know. What comic book hero did you base yourself off of?"

Dustin smiled as if he was proud of himself.

"Kit Walker, The Phantom. I always liked him out of all the comics I read because he was a ghost that lived among our world. So when I had my accident and realized that my capabilities were similar to that of a ghost. I knew instantly what to call myself."

"So you ripped off the name and suit of an already made comic book character."

"Not ripped off Jackson." Replied Dustin as if he was offended. "Don't be stupid. Gosh! I can't even believe you just said that."

Jackson rolled his eyes.

"Okay…" Jackson pinched his eyes. "What do you call what you're doing then Dustin?"

"Borrowing without asking of course."

Jackson buries his face into his hands and rests his head on his knees in disbelief to Dustin's statement.

"Dustin…I'm going to pretend you're not the biggest dumbass I have ever met."

"That's the spirit Jackson!"

Dustin looks to the side and notices a dark skinned Amazon with short black curly hair walking towards the two, holding what looks like to be food.

(Phantom) Damn, that Amazon has it going on over there.

Dustin get's really excited and punches Jackson in the arm.

"Eyes up. Hottie with food on my three."

Jackson gets up and looks at the amazon as well. The amazon came up to the two and looked at Jackson.

"You must be hungry from traveling all day." She replied. "Here's some of our delicious Tyranian rose petals."

Dustin extends his hand out to try and grab some of the petals.

"Don't mind if I do."

The amazon gives Dustin a dirty look, keeps the tray of food away from him, grabs the small club attached to her belt and smacks the shit out of Dustin's hand with it. Dustin screams in pain and grabs his hand.

"Y'oww! What gives you damn crazy Amazonian bi…"

Jackson smacks the back of Dustin's head before he could finish his statement and Dustin reacts by grabbing the back of his head.

"I wasn't talking to YOU." Replied the Amazon. "I was talking to our guest."

The amazon lowers the tray to Jackson and Jackson reacts honorably by grabbing one of the petals to eat it. Jackson looks at Dustin.

"Yeah Dustin, she was talking to the guest."

(Phantom) I'm already not liking where this is going.

"And I'm not!?" screamed Dustin in confusion.

"You are by far the most rudest man to ever set foot on this Island." Replied the Amazon. "If anything, you should be punished for your actions."

Dustin gets a grin on his face.

"Punish you say."

Jackson smacks the back of Dustin's head again.

"She means the other type of punishment, not the type you're thinking of perv."

Dustin feels the back of his head and then crosses his arms.

"I hate this place." Uttered Dustin. "This is not how I thought this trip was going to go down."

"Seems like somebody is not having a good time here!" Alexa yelled at the bottom of the Amphitheatre steps.

"Shut up!" screamed Dustin as his voice also cracked.

The dark skinned amazon hands Jackson the bowl of Tyranian petals.

"Thank you umm…" replied Jackson. "I'm sorry I don't think I got your name."

The amazon giggled.

"Felisha." She replied. "But please, call me Lish."

"Lish huh?" smirked Jackson. "So I'll see you around."

Felisha started to walk while grazing her hand on Jackson's shoulder.

"Sooner than you think." She whispered to Jackson.

(Nereid) I wonder what that's supposed to mean.

Felisha walks away from Jackson and Dustin and then gives Jackson a quick wink before moving on. Dustin is in disbelief and lies on his back.

"Please tell me that Amazon didn't just give you an invitation to a booty call." Asked Dustin.

"If I say yes, are you going to whine and complain?" replied Jackson.

"No, I'm just going to give in and call it a night." Dustin's stomach growled loudly.

"Although some food would be really nice. But I highly doubt any of these damn broads will serve me."

Jackson grabs a handful of the petals and hands the rest of the petals in the bowl to Dustin.

"Here, you didn't get it from me."

Dustin grabs one of the petals.

"You're the best Jackson. Don't let anyone tell you different."

Dustin takes a bite out of the petal but as soon as he swallows the petal, Dustin's entire body began to twitch and he falls straight to the ground. Jackson is shocked and gets up to try and help Dustin.

"Dustin! Dustin are you all right?"

Dustin was having a major seizure on the steps and points to the petals.

"Da petls…I thnk der my weakness." Replied Dustin in excruciating pain. "Itz killin mi."

Jackson grabs Dustin from behind and starts squeezing Dustin tightly several times to try and get the petal out. Artemis was about to continue her training when she notices Jackson dealing with Dustin's problem.

"For Zeus's sake." Uttered Artemis. "What's wrong with Dustin now?"

Jackson continued to squeeze Dustin but nothing seemed to help.

"Nothing is working Dustin." Said Jackson.

" '_COUGH' _No thit…" uttered Dustin. "Yur not doin it rite."

Dustin lifts his index finger on his right hand and quickly sticks it down his throat. Dustin gags and vomits everywhere to force the petal out of his body. Dustin began to breathe heavily as Jackson rubbed his back. Artemis watched in disgust and buries her face into her hands out of embarrassment. Aleka looks at Dustin and Jackson, and then at Artemis.

"What's up with Dustin?" asked Aleka.

"He probably ate something bad again." Replied Artemis.

"He has a lot of issues, doesn't he?"

"A lot more than you probably think."

Dustin gets back up and hands the bowl of petals to Jackson.

"Take them." Said Dustin. "I'd rather starve than eat poison."

Dustin began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" asked Jackson.

"Somewhere where I'm safe from amazons and killer petals."

Dustin disappears into the jungle while Jackson sighs and continues to eat the petals. Artemis and Aleka walk up to Jackson.

"Where'd he run off too?" asked Artemis.

"I have no clue." Replied Jackson. "He hasn't exactly been enjoying his stay on Themyscira."

"What drew the last straw?"

Jackson picked up the bowl of Tyranian petals and gave it to Artemis.

"Remember when Dustin lost his strength and dropped the two of us into the jungle?"

(Requiem) Yes, even though I prefer not too.

Artemis nods but tries not to think about it again.

"Turns out, Dustin's powers are affected by the Tyranian rose and the petal almost killed him just now when he ate it."

Artemis picks up the petal and analyzes it.

"That explains why he dropped us earlier then." She states. "I guess I owe Dustin a huge apology later."

(Requiem) I'm still mad at him about the booze on the plane though.

Artemis turns to Aleka.

"Aleka, is the Tyranian rose only located on Themyscira?"

Aleka nods.

"Well that's a relief." Said Jackson. "Guess we'll just keep this secret information to ourselves."

"Well that was sort of bad timing for Dustin to leave." Said Aleka. "Because we're about to have a feast in the royal courtyard."

Artemis exhales in frustration.

"I'll go find him."

Aleka stops Artemis from moving with her arm.

"Please, you two have already dealt with enough problems on the way here. The least we can do is help deal with this one."

Artemis and Jackson look at each other for confirmation.

"Are you sure?" asked Jackson.

"Absolutely." Replied Aleka. "Alexa!"

Alexa runs up to Aleka from the bottom of the amphitheater.

"Yes Ma'am?" asked Alexa.

"Alexa, I need you to go get Dustin and bring him back for the feast."

Alexa gets a grin but then instantly goes back to being serious.

"Yes Ma'am."

Alexa quickly runs into the jungle as well.

"Alexa knows the island better than anyone else." Said Aleka. "She'll find Dustin sooner than you think."

"Sounds good." Said Jackson.

"Though I do hope Dustin doesn't run into any of the wildlife here."

"Why's that?" asked Artemis.

"Let's just say the wildlife here, aren't exactly your typical wildlife."

**Beach, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 9:13 p.m.**

Dustin sat there at the highest point of the beach, away from the ocean water, and glared at the moon. Dustin looked back down to the sand to poke a crab with a stick he was holding. Dustin exhaled depressingly and looked back up at the moon.

"Hey little bro." Dustin said to himself. "I dreamt about you again when I was on the jet this afternoon. I thought the booze would help get rid of the dreams I've been suffering lately again." Dustin buried his face into his right hand. "It didn't. As a matter in fact I think I made it worst." Dustin chuckled to himself sarcastically. "Stupid old Dustin. Being the douche everyone knows and hates."

(Phantom) Why can't that memory just go away? It's the only memory that I can't repress in my mind. I know my accident happened four years ago but I remember everything crystal clear as if it happened yesterday. It haunts my very essence, my SOUL even. I just want the pain to go away.

Dustin throws the stick he was holding out of frustration into the bushes. Inside the bushes, a giant jungle cat was lying on the floor when the stick that Dustin had thrown a second ago came flying in and poked the cat in the face. The jungle cat woke up angry and looked outside of the bushes to see Dustin still sitting. The jungle cat walked out of the bushes and slowly pursued it's prey. Dustin however, is oblivious of his surroundings and does not realize the giant jungle cat is slowly creeping up behind him. The jungle cat eventually stops behind Dustin and began to breathe heavily onto Dustin's neck. All the white in Dustin's eyes were present, as Dustin slowly turned his head around to see what was breathing on his neck. When Dustin came to the realization that a giant jungle cat was behind him, he freaked out and got out of his spot.

"Whoa!" screamed Dustin. "Easy kitty kitty kitty, don't make the rational mistake of causing me to whip out my Phantom style."

Dustin gets into a kung fu stance and tries to show the jungle cat that he is not afraid. The jungle cat is still not intimidated and continues to walk up to Dustin slowly. As the two faced off, over in the jungle nearest to the coast, Alexa appears holding a few objects in her hands and then instantly notices Dustin is facing off with a giant jungle cat.

"By the Gods, does this guy attract chaos everywhere he travels to?" said Alexa to herself while at the same time laughing about it.

Dustin gives the jungle cat a Bruce Lee war cry and the jungle cat reacts by attacking Dustin. Dustin quickly turns around and starts running down the beach screaming off the top of his lungs as the vicious drooling jungle cat chased him. Alexa shakes her head.

"Do I have to save his sorry ass now?" uttered Alexa as she drew her sword out and began to run after the two.

(Phantom) Wow! First I'm chased by Amazons and now I'm being chased by a giant f$%^ing jungle cat! Can my luck be any better?

Dustin eventually reached the end of the beach and stumbled to an area of the island that was all cavern like, with the jungle cat still pursuing him. Dustin turns around and raises both his middle fingers at the jungle cat.

"You ain't got shit on me cat!" Dustin taunted. "I'm the best that ever lived and there's no way in hell you're ever going to touch m…."

Dustin had stopped paying attention in what was in front of him and trips over a stalagmite and falls straight into a giant sinkhole that went down for miles. Alexa came in to the cave and was shocked to see Dustin had fallen in and the jungle cat was waiting patiently by the sinkhole.

**Is this the end for Dustin? **

**Next Issue: The Last Trial**


	4. The Last Trial

**Issue #4: The Last Trial **

**Royal Courtyard, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 9:13 P.M.**

Inside the Amazonian royal courtyard, Artemis and Jackson sat at a long rectangular table full of hungry Amazon warriors, chowing down on the massive amount of food that was put on the table and having a good time.

(Nereid) I am going to admit, our group travels to some pretty interesting places. I mean this is number three on my list of crazy places I have ever traveled to.

Jackson looks down the table while munching on his chicken leg, and notices Felisha giving him looks. Jackson raises his brow in confusion.

(Nereid) Is this amazon trying to signal me or something? Nah Jackson, you're just overthinking it.

Felisha lowers her body down to show off her cleavage.

(Nereid) Maybe it's a coincidence.

Felisha bounces them up and down a little.

(Nereid) Okay that was definitely not coincidental that time. I think this beautiful woman really wants me?

"Hey Jackson." Said Artemis. "Have you tried the…"

Artemis stops and takes notice to what Jackson is staring at. Artemis's eyebrows were raised in astonishment and then gave Jackson a teasing look.

"Looks like someone is asking for a booty call." Uttered Artemis as she sipped her wine.

Jackson was embarrassed and glared at Artemis.

"Seriously, what is up with you and Dustin using that term?" replied Jackson. "Is it that necessary?

"What?" Said Artemis as she placed her glass down. "It's totally obvious that Amazon is attracted to you. Maybe you should go 'talk' (Artemis winks) to her."

"Artemis, you know how I feel about one night stands. Besides, what am I suppose to tell her in the morning, 'Oh, thanks for the sex. Now I'm leaving, bye.' I feel like she wouldn't understand and be hurt."

(Requiem) Goody two shoes over here.

"Oh stop Jackson, she'll be fine. Besides, I bet it's been a long time since a male has satisfied her. Or better yet, EVER. Go have yourself a good time."

Jackson takes a deep breath and was about to get up to talk to Felisha before he realized something.

(Nereid) Hold up.

"Wait a minute, why am I taking advice from you. You've never had a one night stand before."

Artemis was caught off guard by that remark but then blushes.

"That's not entirely true, you remember two years ago at that Halloween party."

"Are you talking about 'The' Halloween party where you completely blacked out for the first time and I found you on the side of the road near…"

Artemis instantly placed her hand on Jackson's mouth to prevent him from revealing anymore-embarrassing information. Artemis looked around at all the Amazons who had stopped eating their food and were staring directly at Artemis weirdly. Artemis uttered a nervous laugh.

"Please don't listen to anything what my friend said just now." Said Artemis. "He's obviously had too much to drink and is obviously thinking about somebody ELSE."

"But I haven't even had one…"

Artemis socks Jackson in the rib cage.

"Shut up." Artemis whispered.

Jackson let out a calm sigh.

"Yeah, I've had too much to drink everyone. I'm sorry."

The Amazon's stopped staring at the two and continued to enjoy their meals while Artemis and Jackson continued their conversation by whispering.

"Not…'That' Halloween." Said Artemis irritated. "I'm talking about the Halloween when I got with that (Artemis grins with a dreamy look)…amazing man in the Spartan outfit."

"Oh yeah that's right." Replied Jackson. "And I if I remember correctly, weren't you wearing that ridiculous blonde wig because you dressed up like Black Canary that year?"

"Ridiculous? You were dressed up like Richard Sherman. Screaming off the top of your lungs, 'I'm the best there is!' belligerent drunk."

Jackson rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

(Nereid) Now that I think about it, what was Dustin for Halloween that year? And why am I having the hardest time remembering? Oh well, I guess I can ask him some other time.

Jackson looked back at Felisha, who was still giving him seductive looks, and finally gave in.

(Nereid) Oh what the hell. What's the worst that could possibly happen?

Jackson got up from his seat and signaled Felisha to come with him. Felisha got excited and walked with Jackson to his guest room. Artemis smiled in happiness for Jackson and continued to drink her wine.

(Requiem) Good for you Jackson. You need it.

"So Artemis!" Said Aleka as she gave a big pat on Artemis's back. "What's it like fighting alongside with men? Queen Dianna never shares her experiences with the Justice League and we're just anxious to know."

Artemis placed her glass down on the tale and looked around in nervousness as all the amazons waited for an answer.

"Well…what's there to really want to know? I mean, they're just like any of us."

The Amazons frowned to Artemis's statement, as if they were expecting a different answer.

"Wait, scratch that. How do I put this to a way for you all to understand? My leader Dustin, he is by far the biggest dumbass on the planet and has put Jackson and I in so many situations I have literally lost count at this point. And to add on, his male ego was also the main reason why we even got stuck in those situations to begin with."

"Then why do you stick with him still?" asked Aleka. "He sounds like more of a drag, than help."

"Even though Dustin can be difficult, if it weren't for him for most of the situations we've been put through, I don't know if Jackson and I would still be alive today. He may be dumb when it comes to common knowledge, but he is a tactical genius when it comes combat."

(Requiem) And in complete honesty, I think Dustin has the capability to easily go toe-to-toe with any Leaguer in the Justice League. He just chooses not to, due to his laziness and his extreme unhealthy habits.

"Dustin has saved our lives more times than I can remember and he took us in when we had nowhere to go. So in other words, I owe Dustin a serious life debt."

(Requiem) And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

**Beach, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 9:18 p.m.**

Alexa was still shocked from watching Dustin fall into the sinkhole and waited to see if Dustin was going to come back. The jungle cat that had chased Dustin into the sinkhole was still waiting by the sinkhole as well.

"Oh, I hope that idiot didn't die just now." Uttered Alexa. "Otherwise, how am I supposed to explain this to Artemis and what's his face."

As the two waited to see if Dustin was all right, the sound of the Superman theme song by John Williams was being hummed as it echoed out of the sinkhole. The jungle cat was startled by the noise and got up on its legs.

"Could it be?" asked Alexa.

A bright purple light appeared out of the sinkhole and then out came a familiar figure floating into the air. The light disappeared and the figure is revealed to be Dustin screaming off the top of his lungs the Superman theme he was humming. Dustin continued to float in the air with his arms crossed as he stared at the jungle cat with a grin. The jungle cat began to shake in fear from Dustin's ability and Alexa exhaled in relief.

"Aw yeah!" yelled Dustin. "I'm back baby!" Dustin cracks his knuckles. "Alright kitty, as quoted by a great philosopher of my generation. I'm about to beat that pussy up."

The jungle cat got scared and tried to run away but Dustin was quick and grabbed the jungle cat by the tail. Dustin began to reel the jungle cat toward him.

"Oh no you don't." Said Dustin. "You tried to hurt me. So it's only fair if I get to do it back."

The jungle cat tried to swipe at Dustin's face but Dustin used his intangibility to let it go past. Dustin uses his strength to lift the jungle cat above his head and began to twirl the cat around. Alexa was shocked by Dustin's incredible strength but then was also, for some reason, aroused.

"By the Gods." Uttered Alexa. "He wasn't kidding about wowing us with his powers."

Dustin throws the jungle cat into the air and uses his Wraith ray to blast the cat right into the ocean. Dustin rubs the dirt off his hands and was about to walk but Alexa appeared right in front of him and was startled.

"Alexa…" Dustin said while looking back at the jungle cat in the ocean. "Okay I can explain that. That cat totally appeared out of nowhere and tried to eat me. Everything I did just now was comple-mostly done out of self defense."

Alexa was still glaring at Dustin.

"And… you don't believe me. Why is that not surprising. Look, is there a reason why you're here? Because I haven't exactly been enjoying myself since I got here, and I think more of your negative remarks might ACTUALLY finally kill me."

Alexa was still glaring at Dustin and Dustin at this point was confused.

"What? Is there something you want?"

Alexa grabs Dustin by the head and lays a fat kiss on Dustin's lips. Dustin gets out of Alexa's hold and is seriously shocked by Alexa's sudden affection.

"I am so confused right now!" replied Dustin. "First you degrade me and now you want me?"

Alexa got closer to Dustin and pulled out a wine bottle.

"I thought we could talk." Said Alexa. "But after seeing your true side, I think I might want to do more than talk."

Dustin's eye's opened wide and took several steps backward as Alexa got closer.

"No please, I like talk. Let's go back to talk, that's what women like to do…Right?"

Alexa shoved Dustin into a bush full of Tyranian Roses and Dustin reacted by letting out a little whimper.

"Not Amazonian women, now quit with the act. You know you want to do this, I have seen the looks you give me."

"I gave looks to every Amazon on this island…Okay maybe you more because you are by far the hottest and you totally got that fight attitude I like. But that's not the point, aren't you technically like thousands of years older than me?"

"Yeah…but my body was twenty two years old when the immortality spell was casted above this island and I have…never been with a man before."

"Good to know. Umm listen, I'm actually pretty tired tonight. So, I think I'm just going to…"

Alexa placed her foot on Dustin's crotch to prevent him from going anywhere. Dustin gulps.

"Listen here ghost boy. We are going to have a good time tonight, whether you like it or not."

(Phantom) Oh boy.

"Also, you cannot tell anyone what happens here tonight."

Dustin smirks.

"And if I refuse and I tell everyone?"

Alexa got right into Dustin's face.

"Then I will just have tell all my sisters that you did something to offend me, and then they will all come after you till you lie dead on the ground."

Dustin's eyes open extremely wide.

(Phantom) This bitch is out of her f%^&amp;ing mind!

"…Seriously? A really attractive Amazon warrior is falsely blackmailing me right now in order to have intercourse with ME?...Oh well, what's the worst that can happen?"

Alexa grins and hops on top of Dustin's abs crazily as his eyes changed from arousal to terror.

"The worst that can happen?" replied Alexa. "I could 'accidently' break something dear to you."

Dustin thought about it for a second before he realized what Alexa meant by that last remark she made.

"Wait! I change my mind, I think I might have made a mist-aaaake!" yelled Dustin as Alexa pushed him to the ground.

**The Next Day…**

**Royal Courtyard, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 6:06 a.m.**

The sun is slowly rising over the horizon of Themyscira and everyone is still asleep. Jackson comes out of the room that he had stayed in and slowly closes the door behind him so that he doesn't wake up Lish who is sleeping in his bed. Jackson starts to do a good morning stretch before noticing Alexa walking back to the palace with hair frizzed up, holding her sandals with one hand and a fat smile on her face. Alexa strolls by Jackson.

"Morning." Said Alexa.

Jackson was a little confused and slightly waves.

"Uh, morning Alexa?" replied Jackson.

Alexa walks into the palace.

(Nereid) That's odd, wasn't Alexa supposed to bring Dustin back here last night?

Jackson looks back into the open to see Dustin, slowly walking to the palace as if he was in a lot of pain.

(Nereid) Speak of the devil. Why is Dustin limp-hold up.

Jackson raises his brow towards Dustin, looks back at the palace where Alexa went to and then at Dustin in realization of what happened between the two.

(Nereid) No, he didn't.

Jackson made a fat smirk on his face as Dustin slowly walks to Jackson.

"So…" Said Jackson as he crossed his arms. "What did you do last night Dustin?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Instantly replied Dustin as he walked towards the palace steps and sat down exhausted.

"Don't want to talk about it huh? Alright, since you don't want to tell me I guess I can always ask Alexa."

"Stop!" Said Dustin while grabbing Jackson. "I'll tell you after we leave this island full of crazy women."

"I thought you liked crazy women?"

Dustin looked up at the palace and then at Jackson.

"I do. But SHE…" Dustin points to the direction Alexa went. "SHE was crazy on a SCARY level."

At that moment, Artemis appears from her guest room in the palace and walks down the stairs to meet up with Dustin and Jackson. Artemis does a stretch and twists her neck.

"Hey you two." Artemis says but then yawns. "Damn, that jet lag is going to kill me if I don't get some coffee in my sys…tem."

Artemis stops talking and takes a good look at Dustin's condition. Dustin reacts by raising his brow at Artemis as if he's annoyed by it.

"What?!" Dustin asks Artemis.

"What happened to you last night?"

Dustin buries his face into his hands and Jackson reacts by trying not to laugh.

"Nothing! Nothing happened last night!" yelled Dustin. "Why do you ask Artemis?"

"Well for one, you didn't come back to the palace last night." Replied Artemis. "And two…well."

"What?"

"You've got several scratch marks on your back."

"Scratch marks?"

Dustin turns around and looks at his back to see several small scratch marks. Dustin blushes as he realizes what it was from and gets embarrassed.

"Oh that…" Dustin replied. "That was from a jungle cat that attacked me last night."

Jackson takes a closer look at the scratches.

"I don't know Dustin." Jackson said. "They look a little too small to be jungle cat scratches. In fact, they almost look like…"

"I'm going to bed. Good night you two."

Dustin marched up the stairs but then stops to realize something.

"Something bothering you Dustin?" Asked Artemis.

"I totally forgot I wasn't given a room last night to sleep in."

"That's okay." Said Jackson "I don't think they were going to give you one anyways."

Dustin raises his right hand and flips off Jackson as he walks up the stairs.

"I'm taking yours Artemis!"

Dustin walks into Artemis's room and passes out onto a nice cozy bed while Jackson and Artemis snickered. Artemis then gives Jackson an odd glare that makes Jackson uncomfortable and raises his eyebrow.

"What?" he asked.

"So…how did it go last night with Lish?" Artemis asked anxiously.

"Oh Lish. We just talked for a while and then we made out that was it. Nothing else happened."

"Nothing else huh?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Why do you care!?"

"Relax, I was just teasing Hyde. I was about to go for a morning jog on the beach. Care to join?"

Jackson smirks.

"Sure Artemis."

Artemis and Jackson both run to the beach and jog as the sun rose over the horizon.

**Training Grounds, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 8:45 a.m.**

On the training grounds, several Amazons were training with each other by sparring with swords and others with their fists. In one certain area of the ground, Aleka and three other amazons were waiting for Artemis. Artemis and Jackson then appear and Aleka is startled.

"Oh Artemis." She said. "Have you already been awake?

"Yeah." Artemis replied. "I've been up since six. Why?"

"Well we didn't know you were up. So we sent Alexa to go awake you."

"Oh boy." Jackson snickered. "Dustin's in for a treat."

**Meanwhile…**

Over in Artemis's room, Dustin was sleeping happily in Artemis's bed when all of a sudden the door was knocked on and then opened. Alexa appears and enters the room.

"Artemis?" She called. "It's time to get…up?"

Dustin wakes up and looks at Alexa.

"Alexa." He uttered.

"Dustin…" Alexa replied. "Where's Artemis?"

"She's up. Been up actually, I thought she would be there already."

Alexa looks around and back at Dustin.

"So she'll definitely be there right?"

"Yeah…are you okay?" Alexa closes the door and locks it. "Why did you just lock the door?" Alexa gives Dustin a seductive look and takes her helmet and armor off. "Oh no. Oh hell no. I can't do this." Alexa slowly removes the pin off her chiton and allows it to drop to the floor to show off her naked body to Dustin. "I'm not in the mood for round two!" Dustin screamed in terror.

In the hallway in front of Artemis's door, Amazon guards were walking by when they were startled by the sound of Dustin screaming in terror.

**Meanwhile…**

Back in the training grounds, Artemis was going through the armory choices to see what sword and shield she wants to claim as her own. Artemis glares at them all but seemed to be unimpressed.

"Something bother you?" asked Aleka.

"Do you have any bigger swords by any chance?" asked Artemis.

The blacksmith walks up to Artemis with a huge sword with wrapping around it.

"Is this big enough?" Asked the blacksmith.

Artemis walks up to it and grabs it.

"This will do." Replied Artemis. "I'll take this bad boy as my own."

"A glorious choice sister." Said the blacksmith. "It will do you good in battle."

Aleka grabs her shield and draws her sword.

"Now then Artemis." Said Aleka. "Arm yourself and let me see what you got."

Artemis smirks and draws her new long sword out.

"And just so you know Artemis. I don't go easy."

"That's funny. I was just about to say the same thing."

Aleka unleashes a war cry, and goes for a heavy attack instantly.

(Requiem) Shit. I forgot these women don't mess around when it comes to combat.

Artemis quickly dodges the attack and then puts her sword up to block the next attack that comes after.

(Requiem) But then again, neither do I.

Artemis and Aleka clang swords a couple times before Aleka shield bashes Artemis in the face. The blow causes Artemis to collapse to the ground and blood began to run down her nose. Jackson got up in concern.

"Artemis!" he screamed.

One of the amazons that was spectating the match stops Jackson with her arm.

"Be calm Artemis's companion." She said. "Your friend is no serious danger, besides I think she's getting right back up."

Artemis gets up very irritated and wipes the blood off her nose.

(Requiem) That hurt a lot more than I thought it would. I need to stay on my guard better—take another hit to the head like that again could really mess me up fatally, might give it a concussion even.

"Alright Aleka." Artemis utters. "You want to play dirty? I'll play dirty."

Artemis picks up a shield on the ground and charges at Aleka head on. Artemis throws the shield she had picked up from the ground like a saucer and Aleka reacts by using her shield to bat the shield attack away but also leaves herself open.

(Requiem) She's open! Go for the finishing blow and end this match!

Artemis decided to use the opportunity to her advantage and jumped into the air and kicked Aleka once in the chest and then shifts her body to lay a second one to Aleka's face. This causes Aleka to stumble and lose her shield and sword. Artemis smirks and points her sword towards Aleka.

(Requiem) Game. Set. Match.

"Give up?" asked Artemis.

"Number one rule in fighting." Said Aleka. "Never let your guard down."

(Requiem) Eh?

Aleka does a spin kick on the dirt and trips Artemis to the ground while Aleka sprints toward the wall and grabs her large sledgehammer. Artemis squints her eyes and raises her sword in front of her.

(Requiem) Oh it is definitely on now.

Aleka raises her hammer above her head and swings it twice at Artemis before the two clash their weapons again. Aleka goes for a jab on Artemis but Artemis quickly does a flip and stands on the hammer. Aleka is shocked by Artemis's move and Artemis reacts by running forward and kneeing Aleka to the face. Aleka gets really frustrated and tries for one more attack but Artemis uses her sword to bat down Aleka's hammer attack and then grabs her from behind to choke her out.

"Submit!" Artemis yelled. "Don't make do something I don't want to do."

Aleka struggled to get loose but couldn't get out of the hold and finally gave up.

"I submit." Aleka uttered. "You are the victor Artemis daughter of Elpida."

Artemis smiles and releases Aleka as Jackson and the amazons who spectated clapped and cheered for Artemis's victory.

"You've got a lot of fight in you." Said Aleka.

"Thank yo-."

"But you are also reckless, and lack a basic form of fighting."

(Requiem) Damn, talk about killing the mood.

Artemis went from excited to disappointment.

"Hey, chin up sister. There is no shame in that and it's not very often I get beat on the first duel with a new opponent. Consider yourself a natural."

Artemis reacts happily and grabs her sword off the ground.

"Well, are you just going to stand there and compliment me or are you going to train me how to kick your ass even faster?"

Aleka smirks and the two began to train again.

**One hour later…**

Meanwhile, at Artemis's room in the palace, Alexa came out of the door happily and placed her helmet back on.

"Bye Dustin." Said Alexa. "I'll be back for more later."

Alexa walks away from the door and as soon as she leaves, Dustin comes out of the door and falls to the ground immediately in extreme pain.

"Well…" uttered Dustin. "At least it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

**Four Years Ago…**

**Cadmus Labs, Metropolis, DE**

Several Cadmus scientists were working on some sort of portal device in a large room when Dustin and Sean entered the room.

"I did it!" yelled Dustin.

A tall man with brown hair and a short woman with black hair both turn around. The nametag on the man read Brad, and the nametag on the woman read Jessica.

"Dustin!" they both screamed. "Be quiet!"

"Sorry…" Uttered Dustin.

"Hey Mom! Hey Dad!" Said Sean.

"Sean!" Replied his parents and gave him a hug.

"Ummm, hello?" Said Dustin awkwardly. "I'm right here you know."

Brad glared at Dustin but drew his attention back to Sean

"How was Science Camp Sean?" Asked Brad.

"Excellent father, I learned a lot about the matters of energy and what it can do to possibly benefit us in the future."

"Nice work honey." Replied Jessica. "Here, let me show what were working on over here."

Sean and Jessica walk over to a different part of the room while Brad stayed with Dustin. Brad cracked his neck, crossed his arms and gave Dustin a look of disappointment.

"So…Dustin." Brad said. "What was it that you did again?"

"I made it Dad." Replied Dustin. "I made into the Big Leagues."

Brad raised his brow in suspicion.

"The Big Leagues for Science?"

"No. The Big Leagues for Hock…"

Brad quickly backhanded Dustin's face before he could finish his statement. Dustin felt the red mark on his face and noticed that his mom and Sean were watching. Brad grabs Dustin by the shirt and slams him to the wall.

"What did I tell you BOY!?" Said Brad very frustrated. "I warned you before you left for Gotham. If you didn't return to me with a bachelors degree in science…I would disown you."

Dustin stands up to his dad by grabbing Brad's arm off his chest and shoving him away.

"DISOWN ME!" Yelled Dustin. "I just got drafted to the f #%ing National Hockey League as the first pick in the draft! And yet instead of being proud of this excellent achievement I had worked my whole life to get to, you remind no matter what I do that isn't your best interest, which is stupid ass science by the way, I'm always going to be nothing but disappointment in your eyes."

"You're wrong Dustin. You're not disappointment to me eyes anymore…you're dead to me."

Dustin was thunderstruck by his dad's statement.

"Dad…I."

"Plus, I knew you weren't going to come back with a science degree anyways. So, I had already had the documents printed up and signed in advance for this very occasion. But I will admit, I didn't expect you to make the big leagues so the fact you even got in was nothing more than a mere miracle." Brad pulls out the document form from his lab coat and hands it to Dustin. "Dustin McCarthy, according to the United States of America. You are now broken off, from the family tree. Now Mr. McCarthy, please do me a favor and get the hell out of my life."

Dustin stood there shocked and also did his best to resist shedding a tear of the pain he had just endured. Sean was shocked as well and ran over to the two.

"No!" Screamed Sean. "You can't do this dad! I won't let you!"

"It's too late, Son. This brat is no longer apart of our family."

Dustin looks down at Sean.

"I'm sorry little bro." Dustin said. "I guess this it."

"No it isn't! I refuse to let this happen! I…I…" Tears began to roll down Sean's cheeks. "I don't know what I would do without-my older bro."

Sean rushed over to hug Dustin and Dustin couldn't hold his tears back anymore and hugged his little brother while unleashing several tears. However, Brad got in between the two and shoved Dustin away.

"What the hell!?" screamed Dustin. "I can't say good bye?"

"Oh, did I forget mention something to you." Replied Brad. "On that document I gave you, is also a restraining order."

"Restraining order? To who?" Dustin looks through the documents and discovers the restraining order. "I, Dustin McCarthy, will hereby stay 20 miles away from… Sean McCarthy."

Brad gave Dustin a smirk, which then also causes fire to ignite in Dustin's eyes.

"You bastard!" screamed Dustin. "You can't separate me from my brother!"

"Oh, but I can. And I did. Security!" Two guards came by to grab Dustin but Dustin pulls his arm away from them. "You may be going on a road to fame and fortune Dustin but have fun enjoying it without the comfort of your family. Now will you excuse me, we have an experiment to test."

Brad left to join his wife and the rest of the scientists.

"Sean…" Dustin said as the security guards shoved him along. "I'll find a way to make this right! I'll…"

The whole building began to shake, and it turns out the experiments test is the reason. The machine that Brad and the Cadmus scientists were trying to test was malfunctioning and began to become a serious safety hazard.

"The portal is losing stability!" Screamed one of the Cadmus scientists. "We need to shut this down now!"

"Hurry Brad!" Screamed Jessica. "Shut it off!"

"Ugh-Not yet!" Replied Brad who seemed very determined. "Just a little more! I can almost see the portal opening!"

Dustin got worried and quickly got away from the security guards to go help Sean get away.

"Hey!" screamed one of the guards.

"Forget'em Frank!" Said the other guard. "We don't get paid enough for this bullshit!"

The two guards quickly run away as Dustin grabs Sean.

"Come on Sean!" Said Dustin. "We're getting out of here."

"But what about…?" replied Sean.

The machine explodes and all the Cadmus scientists, including Brad and Jessica, get collapsed on from the ceiling above and die. The portal started to build energy up for something big.

"No!" Screamed Sean.

"Come on Sean!" Said Dustin. "We gotta…"

A large oncoming concrete block from the ceiling was heading towards Dustin's direction and Sean realizes it too.

"I'm sorry Dustin but this time I save you."

"What?!"

At the last moment Sean shoved Dustin away quickly. Dustin looked back and watched as his little brother Sean got crushed by the concrete block. Dustin was horrified with tears rolling down his cheeks.

"NO!" Screamed Dustin. "SEAN!"

The portal began to build rapidly as if it was about to explode again.

Dustin tries to get out but a concrete block was blocking the exit. Dustin looked back at the portal scared and it was then the portal collapsed and unleashed a sonic wave of energy. The energy then creates a very bright light that blinds Dustin but then affects him right after with the Phantom gene. Dustin screams off the top of his lungs and uncontrollably flies out of the Cadmus building and heads toward Bludhaven.

**Present…**

**Royal Courtyard, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 8:30 p.m.**

The night covered the sky and in the center of the courtyard a ceremonial stage was set up by the Amazons, to honor Artemis's right of passage into becoming an honorary Amazon. In front of the stage were several tables full of Amazons with Jackson and Dustin sitting at one. However, Alexa was brushed up onto Dustin and made it difficult for him to eat.

"Do you mind?" Said Dustin. "I'm trying to eat here."

Aleka then got on top of the stage and gave everyone at the tables the signal to quiet down.

"My sisters!" Aleka announced. "And guests! Tonight, we celebrate our new member to the sisterhood! Artemis daughter of Elpida, you have successfully passed every trial to prove you are worthy to be an Amazon warrior. So without further or do-" Aleka raises her drink in the air, as well as everyone else. "Artemis, welcome to the sisterhood."

(Requiem) This is no doubt the greatest day of my life, and I am glad I got to share it with my two best friends in the world.

Everyone cheered in celebration as they all drank to Artemis's passage.

**The Next Day…**

**The Coast, Themyscira, Atlantic Ocean- 7:07 a.m.**

Dustin, Artemis and Jackson were standing in front of a rowboat while Aleka and the other Amazons gave their farewells.

"Are you sure you can't stay for another day?" Asked Aleka.

"As much as I want to Aleka." Replied Artemis. "Our city needs us."

Alexa gets in front of the group.

"Are you sure the city can't wait for another day?" she asked.

"Aww, since you asked so nicely Alexa." Replied Dustin. "Now we're DEFINITELY leaving now."

Alexa pouted and ran off back to the palace. Dustin, Jackson and Artemis get into the rowboat.

"Oh, and Aleka!" Said Artemis. "I will travel to Bana-Mighdall one day and I will discover the truth!"

"May the Gods be with you when you do Artemis!" Replied Aleka. "And remember to train yourself in our arts of combat everyday too."

"I will Sister. You can guarantee that."

Aleka observes the rowboat.

"Umm, are you sure that the three of you will be able to get back to the mainland on that small boat in piece?"

"Pfft!" Replied Dustin. "We've got our own way of dealing with these situations."

Dustin sits into the boat and notices Jackson was holding a large bag of something.

"What's that?" asked Dustin.

"Insurance." Replied Jackson.

"Alright you two." Said Artemis. "Rock, paper, scissors on who has to take the three of us all the way to the East Coast."

Dustin rubs his hands together.

"Oh boy I love doing this." Dustin said excitedly.

"I hate doing this." Uttered Jackson worriedly.

"Ready?" Asked Artemis

"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!" They three yelled at the same time.

**Who lost the bet?**

**Next Issue: Simple Trip to Toronto, Right? **


	5. Simple Trip to Toronto, Right?

**Issue #5: Simple trip to Toronto, right?**

**Gotham Bay, Gotham City, NJ-12:05 p.m.**

In the bay of Gotham City, several fishermen boats were out in the dark cloudy weather trying to catch loads of fish with their fishing nets. As one of the fisherman reels the net full of fish into the boat, something bizarre catches his attention. In front of the fisherman, Dustin and Artemis appear on a rowboat with Jackson pulling them in the front. Dustin gives the fisherman a cheesy smile and waves.

"Good Afternoon." Dustin said. "Which way to the Apple Store?"

The fisherman is stunned to what he is seeing and just points to the direction without saying a word.

"Thank you!" Said Artemis.

Dustin gets up and stands at the bow of the boat.

"Alright Jackson!" Dustin said while pointing to the direction. "Away with we go! Onward my majestic noble sea stallion!"

Jackson rolls his eyes.

"I am so getting you back for this Dustin." Jackson muttered to himself.

"What was that Jackson?"

Jackson exhaled deeply out of his nose and ignored Dustin by continuing to swim.

**Shopping District, Gotham City, NJ- 12:36 p.m.**

The streets of Gotham are packed with cars, and pedestrians were roaming the sidewalks. Artemis and Jackson stood there waiting in front of an Apple store for Dustin to get a new phone. Dustin finally comes out of the store, smiling as usual as if he has another smart-ass thing to brag about. Artemis crosses her arms.

"So how much did that cost you Dustin?" asked Artemis.

"Not a single dime?" replied Dustin.

"Really?" Jackson said out of astonishment.

"Yep. Even though I destroyed their hockey team in the finals a couple days ago, apparently East Coast fans have a high respect for famous hockey players in the game like me and will do ANYTHING to please them."

"So they just straight up gave you a new phone for free."

"Not only that, they updated my phone and synced everything I lost on my old phone to this one."

Dustin rests his back on the wall and exhales deeply.

"Ahhh, I love being famous."

Jackson and Artemis roll their eyes and look away from Dustin.

(Requiem &amp; Nereid) Showoff.

"Look, was there a reason why you needed to stop in Gotham to get a new phone?" asked Artemis.

"Yes Artemis." Replied Dustin. "I had to make a phone call."

Dustin presses the video chat feature on his phone to call someone. The call is answered and it is revealed to be Nightwing on the other side.

"Heyyy, Dick." Said Dustin. "I'm just here to talk about that little bet we had. You know, the one were I get to see the Bat Cave and all the cool shit that's in it."

Nightwing starts to sweat and looks around nervously.

"Uhhh, Dustin." Replied Nightwing. "About that."

On the phone, Nightwing gets shoved away from someone else and it's revealed to be Batman who is seriously pissed off.

(Phantom) Oh shit, somebody is pissed off.

"The answer is an absolute no Dustin." Said Batman with a lot of intimidation. "You come even a foot near the cave, I will make you your worst nightmare."

The call ends instantly and Dustin stood there in awe. Jackson and Artemis slowly turn their head toward Dustin's ended call.

"Was that?" asked Artemis.

"No way." Uttered Jackson in shock.

Dustin slowly turned his phone off and placed it into his pocket. Dustin takes a very relaxing calm breath and starts to laugh.

"Wow." Dustin chuckled. "That- was by far the scariest thing that I have ever seen in my life. How did Dick ever work with him for so long?"

"Beats me." Replied Artemis. "Can we go back home now?"

"*Sigh*, I suppose. Let me just… hold on I'm getting a call from an unknown number."

Dustin answers the call.

"Hello?"

Dustin reacts mad when he hears who it is and stomps on the ground while also covering the phone.

(Phantom) Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit &amp; SHIT!

"Huh? Yeah I'm available to go to Toronto today." Said Dustin sarcastically. "Alright I'll see you then."

Dustin hangs up the call.

"Who was that?" asked Jackson.

"That was the Commissioner of the NHL. The board is P-I-I-ISSED that I am not playing in the league anymore after that fourth Stanley Cup win."

Jackson and Artemis look at each other and smirk.

"What?" asked Dustin.

Artemis covers her forehead with her arm.

"Ohhh, the cost of being famous inflicts pain to me sooo…" Said Artemis exaggeratedly.

Artemis and Jackson laughed really hard to Artemis's imitation of Dustin, as Dustin stood there annoyed squinting his eyes at the two. As soon as the two stopped laughing, Dustin looks at Jackson.

"F*$% you."

Dustin then looks at Artemis.

"And F*$% you even harder."

Dustin turns around all butt hurt and walks away.

"I'm heading to Toronto to deal with this bullshit. Have fun trying to find a ride home, assholes."

Dustin raises his middle finger up and Jackson squints his eyes.

"Dammit that's right. Artemis, Dustin has all the credit cards."

Artemis grins and raises her hand up to reveal she has a few of Dustin's credit cards. Jackson grins as well.

"You bad girl." He uttered. "I am so getting Dustin back now."

"Come on." Artemis replied. "Let's go shopping for some expensive ass clothes before we go back home."

**Hours Later… **

**Toronto Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Canada- 2:38 p.m.**

Dustin just got off the plane and is now walking out of the terminal gate with an SJ hat on to keep his celebrity identity secret from the public. As Dustin walks down the pathway towards the luggage area, he pulls out his phone and scrolls through his missed calls and messages.

(Phantom) What's the point of having the ability to fly if I still have to use airline services to get to far places? I mean seriously, it doesn't get more ironic than that.

On Dustin's phone, several picture messages began to appear everywhere of Artemis and Jackson showing off what they were buying with Dustin's credit cards.

(Phantom) Wait a minute. Are those…?"

One of the pictures that were sent to Dustin was of Artemis in an expensive dress worth $100 grand. Another was of Jackson showing off an expensive gold watch worth $200 grand. And the last one was Artemis and Jackson holding an extremely expensive bill to a restaurant. Dustin's eyes went wide open and focused mainly into his phone.

"Mother fu-."

Dustin stopped paying attention in what was in front of him and accidentally runs into someone and the person falls to the ground. Dustin is shocked and quickly kneels down.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Are you all right…?"

The person's baseball cap falls off when the person sat up and it's revealed to be a beautiful blonde female around Dustin's age with reading glasses.

"Miss?"

"No. No." The female responded embarrassingly. "It's my fault, I wasn't paying attention because I'm a big klutz sometimes."

The female grabs her hat and Dustin helps her up and also grabs her carry on bag.

"Here let me help you sit down over here."

Dustin helps the blonde female sit down at a food court table chair and then sits down at the chair across from her.

"Thank you." Replied the female but was also still feeling the bump on her head. "What is your chest made up of? Bricks."

"Steel actually." Replied Dustin playfully.

The blonde laughed to Dustin's response but feels her head again.

"Does it hurt?" Asked Dustin.

"A little but I'm fine really, this is nothing compared to what I've had in the past."

"Are you sure? I can just ask the bartender over there for a bag of ice."

"Sir!" The female exclaimed but quickly hid herself away from the public view. "I'm fine. Seriously."

"Alright." Dustin said while resting on his elbow. "If you say so."

The female started to fix her hair but realized she couldn't do it with her glasses on and quickly takes them off. At that moment, Dustin took a good look at her and realizes who she is.

"Wait a second." Said Dustin curiously. "I know who you are."

The blonde female's face turns red and looks up at Dustin in astonishment.

"Yo-you do?" She trembled.

"Yeah, you're that famous Athlete Suzanne Jo-."

Suzanne quickly placed her hands on Dustin's mouth and also causes his hat to be pushed down on his face.

"Shhh!" She whispered. "Not so loud. I don't want the damn paparazzi on my ass."

Suzanne fixes her hair, puts her glasses on and places her hat back on her head. Dustin starts to laugh and fixes his hat.

"Paparazzi huh? I feel you on that one."

Suzanne raises her brow at Dustin.

"And what would you know about dealing with paparazzi?

Dustin notices that Suzanne's cap has an SJ logo on it as well and smirks.

"You a San Jose fan?"

"Huh?" Suzanne looks up at her hat. "Oh hockey. Yeah, I'm a huge San Jose fan. And just to keep it between you and me, I think McCarthy is the best player to ever play the game. And also the hottest in my own personal opinion."

(Phantom) This poor beautiful woman is about to get hit by a freight train of embarrassment.

Dustin smiles, looks around and gets closer to Suzanne.

"Promise not to freak out?"

Suzanne nods.

"Okay, why would I freak out though?"

Dustin slowly takes his hat off and reveals to Suzanne whom he is. Suzanne's eyes turn into dinner plates as she bites her knuckles in excitement and tries to resist not screaming.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." She muttered several times to herself. "Out of all the people I could have run into in the world. What are the odds I run into to my athlete crush?"

"Athlete what now?"

"Nothing." Suzanne said with a nervous smile.

Dustin smiles and puts his hat back on.

"So Suzanne…"

"Please, call me Cissie."

"Okay, Cissie. What brings you here in Toronto? Wait don't tell me I remember now, you just got done winning that archery tournament here."

"Yeah that's right. Wait, do you actually watch my matches?"

"Well my friend Artemis watches your archery tournaments all the time on TV and she always hogs the remote so it was something I got used to watching after a while. Also, an old buddy of mine was pretty wicked with the bow and arrow and it just reminded me of his skills."

"Uh huh."

"But the matches I love to watch from you are the MMA ones."

"Wait really?"

"Oh yeah, nothing gets me going more than seeing you knock out your opponents in the first round. Plus, you're one hell of a fighter for a woman your age and size."

"What's wrong with my size?"

"Nothing! I didn't say anything bad I swear. All I'm saying is that its impressive a young woman your size is able to knockout these other colossal female opponents."

"Oh…" Replied Suzanne and then blushes. "Well then thank you for the sweet compliment."

"Anytime." Dustin smirked.

"So I never asked, what brings you here in Toronto Dustin?"

Dustin blows out a lot of air and leans back in his chair.

"The NHL Commissioner is being a real dick about my recent decision to retire early…"

"What!" Said Suzanne in shock. "You're retiring already?"

"Believe me, that's the same exact response I got when he called me earlier."

"Well I don't blame him, you're like the best player the league has seen in the last few years. Why are you retiring already?"

"I have other…'personal stuff' to deal with."

"Than to play professional ice hockey?"

Dustin rolls his eyes to the side.

"Yeah."

Suzanne got closer to Dustin in suspicion.

"Okay. Then what do you do besides play hockey professionally? No wait let me guess, you're secretly a powerful superhero and the reason you're retiring is so you can mainly focus on it."

Dustin reacts to Suzanne's statement very shocked as to how accurate and true it was and gets suspicious of her.

(Phantom) Is she on to me? That was literally spot on. Dustin, be prepared for anything.

"I'm just kidding!" Said Suzanne.

(Phantom) Oh thank something.

"Oh." Said Dustin with relief. "For a second there, I thought you were really on to me."

Suzanne's happy go lucky attitude goes away and gets serious.

(Phantom) Dumbass! Dumbass! Dumbass!

"What do you mean you thought I was on to you?"

"Uhhh…did I say that out loud? I think the heat here is making me delusional."

"Dustin we're in Toronto and it's 14 degrees outside."

"Heater?"

Suzanne raises her brow.

"Are you hiding something?"

"Hiding something? No, I just…"

"…Yes?" Asked Suzanne irritably.

(Phantom) Running out of ideas, time for my go to last resort idea.

Dustin lets out a deep breath.

"I'm usually not good at these but…"

"Well spit it out already!"

Dustin pulls out a pen and paper out of his pocket and places it on the table.

"If it's not too much, I was going to ask if you wanted my number?"

Suzanne's irritable attitude instantly goes away and blushes embarrassingly.

"Oh… I mean. Yes, yes I would love your number."

Dustin lets out a sigh in relief and writes his number down. Dustin hands the paper to Suzanne and Suzanne reacts delighted and places the paper in her pocket. Suzanne takes a look at her phone's clock.

"Oh shoot, I gotta head over to the gate right now because my plane is boarding soon."

"Better hurry."

Suzanne gets up from her chair and grabs her carry on bag.

"It was a pleasure talking to you Dustin."

"Please, call me Dusty."

Suzanne smirks and blows a kiss towards Dustin.

"I'll text you later. Bye."

Suzanne waves and walks away. Dustin grins to himself and lies back in his chair.

(Phantom) Phew. That was a close one, almost did something I might have regretted there. But on the bright side, Suzanne Jones has my digits now.

Dustin's phone vibrates on the table and reacts by picking it up. When Dustin see's the screen, it's a picture of Artemis and Jackson looking at a nice car in utter astonishment.

(Phantom) Ohhh, you two better not.

The next picture appears on Dustin's phone and the two are shown happily purchasing the vehicle that is worth $750,000.

"Son of a Bitch!" Dustin screamed.

Dustin stops yelling and looks around to see everyone in the airport staring at him.

"What are you looking at?! Huh!"

Everyone stopped staring at Dustin and continued to go on with their business.

"What am I doing? I need to head to that meeting."

Dustin gets up and was about to exit the terminal when out of nowhere a small explosion erupts at the security gate.

"What the hell?" Dustin said out of astonishment.

Three police guards rush over to the explosion and pull out their handguns.

"Get on the ground! Now!" Screamed one of the police guards.

Before the police could get close to the smoke, a large wave of black shadows come shooting out of the smoke and pierced the three guards by forming into sharp spikes. Every civilian around screamed in horror and ran away as several goons with assault rifles storm into the airport terminal. The shadow that pierced the guards then slowly return back to the smoke and into what looks like a cane. The person who was holding the cane in the smoke is revealed to be a tall slick man, wearing an all black outfit with a tactical vest and large black goggles. The man with the goggles grins a tiny bit and twirls his cane around as he walks into the airport.

"Good evening citizens of Toronto!" Said the man with the goggles. "My name is Richard Swift! But you can call me Shade! I am standing here before you all with an opportunity to keep something valuable to you. Your LIVES!"

Dustin quickly runs over by the gift shop and grabs aviator shades and a bandanna.

"Out of all the places this could have happen to." Said Dustin as he places the bandanna on his mouth. "Why Toronto!?"

"Now!" Said Shade as he walked around the airport and looked at all the flights that were departing. "All we want are two things! One, all of your valuables that are on you, please dump them into the bags those nice gentlemen with the assault rifles are holding! And two, we would love to have some sort of transportation to escape from here! And I think the flight to Central City will do just fine! If everyone cooperates nice and quietly, you won't end up like those poor suckers on the ground over there."

"Oh that just makes things even more difficult now." Muttered Dustin as he placed a Maple leafs hat backwards on his head.

Over by the McDonalds food court, one of the goons comes up to a blonde woman and her child and points the weapon at them.

"Hand over the goods, sweet thang." Said Shade's goon.

The blonde woman pulls out her wallet out of the purse shaking and hands it to him.

"Please, it's all I have on me." Said the blonde woman. "Do anything to me but just leave my son alone."

Shade's goon goes through the woman's wallet and pulls out a few dollars.

"Six dollars?! This won't do."

Shade's goon gazed at the woman's legs and licked his lips.

"Although, there is another way you can pay."

Shade's goon grabs the blonde woman by the hair and starts to drag her away from the public eye. The son reacts worried for his mother and tries to stop Shade's goon.

"No! Stop! Leave my mom alone!" Screamed the child.

"HaHaHa! Scream all you want kid. No one is going to save your mom now."

(Phantom) That's it, this f$%#er is going down first.

As soon as Shade's goon was out of public eye, Dustin became visible right behind him and grabs him by the neck and mouth. Shade's goon lets go of the woman as Dustin launches him over his shoulder and knocks him out with one punch to the face.

(Phantom) Bitch, I hope the prison system destroys your ass.

The child and mother are relieved in excitement as the two reunite together. Dustin gives the two the silence look with his finger.

"I'd recommend finding safety." He whispered. "Things are about to get messy in here."

Dustin uses his invisibility and starts to move around to other parts of the airport with goons. Dustin started to close in on a goon that was by one of the airplane gates. Dustin was about to take him out when out of nowhere an arrow came flying in, turns into a boxing glove and socks Shade's goon in the face. Shade's goon goes flying into the air and lands on the counter of the ticket scanner unconscious. Dustin is shocked, turns visible again, looks at the boxing glove arrow and then grabs it.

"A boxing glove arrow?" Said Dustin confusedly.

"Yeah, a boxing glove arrow." Replied another voice.

Dustin looks up to see a young woman with a blonde ponytail holding a bow and wearing a red mask, a red and white outfit, and a red cape with a hoodie. The woman walks up to Dustin and grabs the arrow from him.

"Problem?" She asked.

"No." Replied Dustin. "As a matter in fact, I find it real cool actually."

The woman placed the arrow back into her quiver and continued to pursue the other goons in the airport quietly. Dustin quietly follows the woman.

"So… What do I call you?" Asked Dustin. "Let me guess, Miss Arrow Woman?"

"Please." Replied the woman as she and Dustin hid at the corner of the See's candy store. "As if I would call myself that, call me Arrowette Mr…umm, what am I supposed to call you? The Maple Leaf thug?"

Dustin takes a look at his outfit and sighs disappointedly.

"In my defense, my actual costume is at home and I wasn't expecting anything to happen in CANADA!"

"Tssk-Tssk. Rookie mistake right there."

"Whatever." Dustin said while looking ahead for any other goons. "You can call me the Phantom."

"The Phantom!?" Arrowette said in a sarcastic intrigued tone. "Never heard of you."

(Phantom) Oh, if this bitch wants to play the sarcasm game with me she's got another thing coming.

"That's okay, I've never heard of you too and frankly I don't care either."

Arrowette squints her eyes at Dustin and looks ahead for goons as well.

"Alright Phantom, see those two goons going around the corner of the gift shop? Let's take those two out first and then we'll deal with Shade and the remaining two over in the open."

Dustin nods and the two sneak their way around the airport without getting the attention of others.

"So Arrowette, are you affiliated with Green Arrow by any chance?" Dustin whispered.

"Nope." Arrowette whispered back.

"Arsenal?"

"No."

"Speedy? Wait, that is Arsenal."

"No, I've never met any of those heroes you just named before."

"Wait, so you're just a wannabe arrow shooting vigilante?"

"Not wannabe. Am."

"Oh I'm sure."

"Look, do you have anything better to do than troll me while we try to take out these two?"

"No."

"Then let me give you something to do. It's called shut your mouth and if you open it again I'll pierce your damn lips together with one of my arrows. Got it scumbag?"

"Scumbag? Well let me tell YOU, scumBITCH." Dustin looks down at Arrowette's body. "If you weren't so damn hot in that skintight outfit of yours I'd totally come up with a comeback for you but because my brain doesn't feel like cooperating with me right now I'll just…"

"Hey buddy."

"What?!"

"I stopped listening a while ago."

(Phantom) Smooth Dustin.

"…Wow, I think I might be starting hate you."

"Beat you to it because I already hate you."

Dustin flips off Arrowette. Arrowette and Dustin slowly crouch walk behind the gate seats while also informing citizens quietly to remain calm.

"Take the left!" Said Arrowette as she hopped over the seat to attack. "I'll take the one on the right!"

Dustin hops over the seat as well.

"Hey, lets just attack and then go over the plan."

"Shove an arrow up your ass."

"Not if you do first."

Dustin uses his Wraith Ray to blast Shade's goon on the left into the air. He then quickly flies into the air, grabs Shade's goon and slams the back of his head to the ground to knock him out quietly. Dustin's actions however distracted Arrowette when she was aiming her arrow at her target.

"Whoa…" Arrowette uttered before releasing the arrow and completely missing the target. "Shit!"

This got Shade's goon's attention.

"What the hell?" He screamed. "Boss! We got vigilantes!"

Arrowette quickly uppercuts Shade's goon in the face with her bow and then hook kicks him straight to the ground with his face flat on the ground. Shade and the other two goons are now aware of Arrowette and Phantom's presence.

"Well!" Screamed Shade. "Seems we have some heroes in the building!"

Shade signals his two goons to move toward the direction of the noise.

"I hope they don't try to do anything- hasty now! Otherwise something unfortunate might happen. Say I don't know…"

Shade grabs a ten-year-old boy wearing a Dustin McCarthy hockey jersey from his mother and drags him to the middle of the airport while holding his cane to the child's head.

"NO!" Screamed the child. "Let me go!"

"Please! Not my son!" screamed the mother.

"Like blowing this child's brain on the pavement! You so called heroes will stand down and let us pass through! Or so help me god I will end this child's life and it will be on YOU!"

Dustin and Arrowette quickly hide behind the corner of a bathroom door.

"Nice shot amateur." Said Dustin. "Now he knows we're here."

"ME?!" Complained Arrowette. "You're the one that… distracted my shot."

(Phantom) Really? She is just as bad as making up excuses as I am.

Dustin gives Arrowette a blank look.

"I distracted your shot? That's your excuse."

"Yeah, your stupid little ray blinded me."

(Phantom) Really bad at excuses.

"I watched you fire the arrow, you completely missed you little liar!"

"Who you calling little…Oh my god why are we arguing about this right now?!"

"I don't know! I just like to argue!"

"Shut up! We need to focus on the situation."

"Right. Can you handle those two thugs on your own?"

Arrowette looks over at the two goons walking in their direction.

"Yeah. But I was going to-"

Arrowette is shocked to realize Phantom is not even there anymore.

"Son of a bitch he pulled a Batman on me."

Over by Shade and the child hostage, Dustin was invisible and walking quietly towards the two.

(Phantom) I totally pulled a Batman on that cute blonde broad.

"I'm warning you, you damn vigilantes!" Screamed Shade. "If you don't surrender now! I will put this kids brain on the pavement."

Dustin then appears in front of Shade cross-armed and actually spooks Shade when he does.

"Yeah. Yeah." Dustin chattered. "You already said that already. How about you say the part that all villains say when the hero is about to kick their ass."

"Shit." Uttered Shade.

Dustin throws a lightning fast punch and socks Shade in the face and causes his goggles to crack as he flew back onto the floor.

"Yeah like that." Dustin looks down at the kid wearing his jersey. "Nice jersey kid. Want to see me kick this guy's ass?"

The kid nods.

"Go run back to your mother now so you can watch."

The kid runs to his mother as Dustin flies toward Shade. Back over by the bathrooms, the two goons start to look around for Arrowette in the crowd of civilians.

"Where are they!?" Screamed one of the goons. "I know they're here somewhere."

Arrowette then pops out of the ceiling rafters above the two goons and lands on both of them.

"Go!" She screamed. "Get to safety!"

Everyone got up from their spots and rushed over to a safer part of the airport. One of the goons got up from being knocked down and grabbed his assault rifle to point it at Arrowette.

"Uh oh." Arrowette said in fright.

Shade's goon fired his weapon rapidly and Arrowette reacted by quickly running and dodging the bullets.

"Oh I hate doing this!" screamed Arrowette.

(Arrowette) But it also gives me a rush at the same time.

Arrowette quickly runs up to the goon when he reloads his weapon and hops up to wrap her legs around his neck. She then shifts her body weight around quickly to slam the thug to the ground and socks him in the face three times before knocking him out. The final goon gets up as well from being knocked down and points his weapon at Arrowette.

(Arrowette) Sorry, not quick enough buddy.

Arrowette smirks and quickly draws an arrow from her quiver and fires it right into the barrel of the weapon. Shade's goon is shocked and looks at his weapon with the arrow in it.

"Whoa." Said Shade's goon.

Another arrow is fired but this time it's a steel rope and it wraps around the goon's body.

"Yeah." Arrowette said while she ran up to the goon. "Whoa."

Arrowette jumps into the air and knees the goon in the mouth while also knocking out a couple of his teeth. Back to the middle of the airport, Shade was getting back up from being knocked when he notices Dustin flying towards him.

"You think you can beat me!" Screamed Shade. "Let me show you what happens when children try to play in the adult leagues."

Shade uses the Shadow in his cane and plasters Dustin to the wall. Dustin struggles to get out of the shadows.

"Ugh! Let me go!" Screamed Dustin. "Let me out of this so I can shove my foot up your ass."

"Hmmm, sounds promising. But I think I'll stick with the idea of strangling you to death instead."

(Phantom) Damn. What the hell is this stuff made of? I can't use my intangibility to get out of it!

Shade uses his cane to unleash even more of the shadow and starts to cover up Dustin's entire body.

(Phantom) No! I can't go out like this! It's not epic enough! Must! Fight! Back!

"Hey cut it out man! I'm warning you! If I get out of here, I am definitely shoving my foot so deep up your ass…!"

The shadow covered Dustin's entire body and he was not able to speak anymore.

"Don't worry boy. It'll all be over soon."

"That's what you think!" Said a familiar voice.

An arrow pierces Shade's cane and causes it to malfunction and not work.

"What? No! Not my cane! What you have you done you little bitch?"

"Just ordered my Pay-Per-View event." Said Arrowette as she sat down in excitement cross-legged. "Now I get to watch it."

"Pay-Per-View event?" Said Shade in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

The shadow blob that covered Dustin earlier began to crack with several purple lights shining out of it. Eventually, the whole shadow blob explodes and out came Dustin gasping for air.

"Air!" Dustin screamed as he breathed heavily and took off his bandanna.

Dustin stops panting and starts to look around.

"Alright, 'huff' where's that Shade guy 'huff' so I can 'huff' shove my 'huff' foot up his 'huff' ass?"

(Arrowette) This guy is actually pretty funny. Quirky even, almost reminds of…me."

Dustin looks at Arrowette and Arrowette points to the opposite direction but also tries not to laugh. Dustin looks the other way and spots Shade trying to escape the airport. Dustin gets a fat grin on his face.

(Phantom) Villain humiliation time!

"Hey! Where are you going Shady? There still needs to be a certain ASS that needs a FOOT shoved into!"

Dustin's leg began to glow purple as he flew up into the air and darted towards Shade. Shade turns around and trembles for his life now.

"No! No please!" Shade screamed.

"Better clinch up. Because this foot is going DEEP!"

Dustin kicks Shade in the ass so hard that he flew directly into the air screaming in pain and then half of his entire body got stuck into the ceiling and became unconscious. Dustin fell to the ground on his back laughing hysterically. Arrowette rushes over to Dustin.

"You know Phantom. When you said you were going shove your foot up Shade's ass, I didn't think you were literally going to do it and-and-"

"And?"

"And I am… So glad you did it!" Replied Arrowette as she placed her hands on both sides of her head. "I mean, that was one the most gnarliest things I've ever seen!"

"I know right! He went straight into the ceiling!"

"Were you even expecting that?"

"No! I thought he was going to do some sort of crazy flip in the air and crash but that through the ceiling shit was so much more schway."

"So much what now?" Arrowette asked confusedly.

"Schway."

Arrowette gives Dustin a bizarre look.

"Sch-way? Am I saying that right?"

"Yeah, you know like 'Oh, that was so schway what you did!' or 'Pancakes! Schway!'…No?"

"I'm sorry hot stuff, I'm just not feeling it."

(Phantom) Damn, really thought I could that word to trend. Doesn't mean I won't continue to not try.

Dustin sighs.

"Watch! That word will be famous one day, you'll see! And…wait, did you just call me 'hot stuff'?"

(Arrowette) F#$%! Did I really just say that out loud!

Arrowette's eyes opened fast in shock and blushes nervously.

"What? No I didn't call you 'hot stuff'."

"Then what did you just call me?"

"I said… 'not…buff'?"

(Phantom) That definitely took the cake for worst excuse of the day. But I'll cut her come slack.

"Okay even that's not believable." Dustin then rips his jacket off to reveal he is wearing a white tank top and flexes his arms right after. "Because I am SO buff."

(Arrowette) Whoa, he's not kidding. God I would like to hop on that body and…Oh my god Suzanne! What is wrong with you! Need to come with a response quick!

"You wore a tank top in cold weather Toronto?"

"Yeah. What, you got a problem with it?"

"Nah, I actually like it. It's good fit on you."

(Arrowette) Change the subject already!

"But as much as I want to talk, right now we should probably get out of here before the public shows up." Said Arrowette.

"Way ahead of you."

Dustin grabs Arrowette by the arm.

"This usually freaks people out the first time when I do this." Said Dustin

"What freaks people out the first time?"

Dustin flies directly into the air and towards the ceiling. Before the two hit the ceiling, Arrowette screams off the top of her lungs thinking she's going to die but Dustin quickly uses his intangibility and fazes them through the ceiling and on to the roof of the Airport. Arrowette started to shake in anxiety as she hung on for dear life to Dustin. Dustin responds by smirking.

"THAT is what usually freaks people out the first time."

Arrowette punches Dustin in the arm.

"So I realize now! You can give a lady a better damn warning next time?"

"Sorry…"

Arrowette gives Dustin a quick kiss on the cheek.

"And maybe next time I'll give you a warning when I do that."

(Phantom) Did she just hit on me?

Dustin smiles but then the sound of a news helicopter comes flying in and got his attention.

"Well the news is here. We should probably…"

Dustin is astonished to realize Arrowette disappeared.

"Get… off the roof."

Dustin takes off his glasses and hat while also laughing to himself.

(Phantom) I guess she got me back on the Batman I pulled off on her early. Not too shabby Arrowette, not too shabby. Hopefully we'll meet again, soon.

Dustin then looks out toward the horizon as he gets a beautiful grand view of the city of Toronto.

**Will Phantom and Arrowette meet again?**

**Next Issue: Born on a Monday**


	6. Born on a Monday

**Issue #6: Born on a Monday**

**Island 50 miles off the coast of San Francisco, Pacific Ocean- 9:39 p.m.**

On an island off the coast of San Francisco, a massive drug cartel factory resided there where lots of henchmen were working hard to get the drugs all packaged. Inside the main building of the large factory, several different drug cartel leaders sat there at a round table in a dark room with only one light shining over them. Their faces were hidden within the shadows and only their bodies and hand motions were visible.

"Has everything been prepared for the big trade tomorrow night?" Asked one of the leaders from under the shadows.

"Almost Boss." Replied another person from under the shadows. "Just a few more cargo boxes need to be filled up and everything will be ready to go."

"Excellent, so we have nothing to worry about?"

Two men at the table look at each other awkwardly and one of them raises their hand.

"Actually…" He said. "We might have a…slight problem."

The leader clinches his fist.

"What do you mean we might have a 'slight problem', Drix?"

"Well boss, we've been getting reports lately about that Phantom guy closing in on our operations…"

"HA HA HA HA!" laughed the Boss. "The Phantom? That guy's the biggest idiot to ever walk the Earth! He's like the punch line joke for every super hero out there!"

"But fearless leader." Said Drix shaking in fear. "He's taken out every drug trade we've tried to attempt at the docks for the last two weeks and not to mention he has two others working with him. The men are scared and I recommend we should take extra precautions on this next…"

"We will do no such thing!" screamed the Boss. "If the men are too scared to deal with a lousy superhero like the Phantom, then tell them to man up and quit being a bunch of pussies or else I'll cut their paychecks!"

"But Boss…"

"That's final! We have nothing to worry about, so stop worrying!"

**Meanwhile…**

Over at a barb wired fence gate, two guards holding assault rifles stood there under a single post light, watching for anything suspicious. The sound of a whistle is then heard from one of the bushes ahead of the two guards and gets their attention.

"What the hell was that?" said one of the guards.

"I don't know." Replied the other guard. "Lets go check it out."

The two guards turn the safeties off their assault rifles and slowly walk towards the bush. The two guards reach the bush and start to look through it. Then out of nowhere, a person jumps out of the bushes in front of the two guards, grabs them both by the head and slams them together to knock the two out. The person is revealed to be the Phantom.

"Ohhh!" Dustin taunted to the two knocked out guards. "I cannot believe I pulled that off just now!"

"Did you just do what I think you just did just now?" asked Jackson on Dustin's ear communicator.

"You damn right I did Hyde. Never thought playing Assassins Creed for twelve hours straight would ever give me inspiration to try that."

"Uh…are you two really talking about this right now." Uttered Artemis on Dustin's ear communicator.

"Artemis, if you can't handle Jackson and I's conversations then maybe you should…"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW DUSTIN!" Screamed Artemis.

Dustin grabs his ear in pain.

"Ahh, my ear!" Whined Dustin. "Uh, is it bleeding? Is it bleeding? (Dustin looks at his hand to see blood.) Yep, it's bleeding. Ladies and Gentlemen my ear is bleeding from Artemis yelling too loud into it."

"Urgh." Uttered Artemis. "Can you focus on the mission please Dustin?"

"I don't know Artemis, can I?"

"Okay Dustin, if you say one more wisecrack joke to me, I will break your favorite bong."

"Gasp! You wouldn't dare. I've had that thing since High School."

"Oh I would Dustin. Now do your job! Capture the drug cartel's leader, Bryce Harrison."

"He'll be the one with the fancy moustache." Said Jackson.

"Fancy moustache, got it." Replied Dustin.

"Alright Dustin." Said Jackson. "I think the best way to get into the factory secretly would probably be…"

"GUNS BLAZING!" Screamed Dustin and flew straight into all of the security.

"That's right Dustin, guns bla…"

"WAIT WHAT!" Both screamed Jackson and Artemis in shock.

Dustin blasts the gate open with his wraith ray and flies really quickly down the middle to the entrance of the drug factory. All the security guards on the watchtowers and ground level open fire on Dustin.

"WHAT THE HELL DUSTIN!" Screamed Artemis. "THE PLAN WAS FOR YOU TO STEALTHLY SNEAK IN AND GRAB THE LEADER! NOT GUNS BLAZING!"

"The other plan sounded boring to me." Replied Dustin casually. "Now shut up and watch me kick all these guards ass's."

(Phantom) I'll admit it; I'm terrible at following orders. But then again, who doesn't like guns blazing? Especially when you are da shit like me.

Dustin smirks and uses his intangibility to let all the bullets go through him and then flips over onto his back in mid air and uses his Wraith ray to blast the bottom of the watchtowers. The watchtowers collapse and the guards react by taking cover and evading from the collapsing towers. Dustin laughs at every guards misfortunes and then resumes to pursue the leader by quickly bursting through the door. The door flies back and knocks two guards that were waiting behind the entrance out cold. Dustin sets down on the floor and looks around to see four guards shivering in fear. Dustin smirks.

"Knock. Knock."

Dustin uses his wraith ray to blast two guards through the wall and the other two guards look at each other in shock. One guard pulls out a knife and swings it at Dustin several times before taking an elbow to the neck. Dustin then starts rapidly punching that same guard in the stomach several times while screaming like Bruce Lee before giving the guard a finishing blow to the face. The last guard reacts scared and fires his shotgun consecutively. Dustin uses intangibility to let the rounds go through and slowly walks toward the guard.

"No matter what you do man." Said Dustin. "You're never going to hit me with that-AUGH!"

At that moment the last shotgun round the guard uses affects Dustin for some reason and Dustin falls to the ground in pain. The guard reacts surprised.

"Holy shit." The guard uttered to himself. "I got him. Hey guys I actually…got…him?"

Dustin started to laugh on the ground and gets right back up.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Dustin gasped out while also still trying not to laugh. "I couldn't resist. I just wanted to see what your poor pathetic face looked like when you thought you actually killed me."

(Phantom) I'm such a dick.

Dustin uppercuts the guard into the air and the guards head and upper body gets stuck into the ceiling.

(Phantom) But do I really care what happens to these men?

Dustin walks by the guard stuck in the ceiling and gives the guard a sack tap.

"Sack tap." Dustin laughed to himself.

(Phantom) No, no I really don't care what happens to these men. They decided to be criminals, so I'm 'giving' them what they deserve. A good old Phantom Smack down RAW style.

Dustin flies into the air and uses his intangibility to fly through the ceiling. Dustin stops in front of the entrance to the main room and knocks on the door.

"House keeping." He mimicked in his best Spanish accent.

Everyone in the room began to load their weapons.

(Phantom) Figured they wouldn't believe that.

Dustin blasts the door clean open, walks into the room to see several men shocked and gives them all a big smile.

"Hello there." Said Dustin. "Which one of you is Bryce Harrison?"

"It's the Phantom!" Said one of the men. "Shoot him!"

All the men in the room pull out their guns and open fire on Dustin.

(Phantom) So rude, not one of them greeted me back.

Dustin turns intangible and walks around the room looking at the men thoroughly.

"Moustache. No moustache. I don't know what the hell that is?" Dustin said while trying to find his man. "A ha! Fancy Moustache acquired."

Dustin flies toward one of the men in the room and grabs him.

"You're coming with me buddy."

"Whaaa-t?" Complained the man that was captured by Dustin. "Whyyy me?!"

Dustin uses his intangibility to sink through the floor with the man he grabbed and flies through the hallway.

"Ummm, Dustin." Said Jackson in Dustin's ear communicator. "Can you stop for a second?"

"Why Jackson? I'm almost out of the building."

"JUST DO IT!" Artemis screamed into Dustin's ear communicator.

(Phantom) Can someone put a muzzle on her? I don't think my ear could take another hit.

Dustin's ear was hurt again from Artemis's yelling and stops to let the camera on Dustin's mask see the person he grabbed.

"Ugh." Jackson sighed in disappointment. "Just as I suspected."

"What?"

"YOU GRABBED THE WRONG PERSON YOU DUMBASS!" Screamed Artemis.

(Phantom) Am I deaf now?

Dustin awkwardly looks at the person he grabbed.

"Are you sure? That looks like a pretty fancy ass moustache to me."

"Unfortunately, yes Dustin." Uttered Jackson. "Go back into that room and find the real leader."

(Phantom) Nope, I can still hear.

Dustin rolls his eyes in disbelief and puts the person he grabbed on the wall.

"Fancy moustache, which one of the guys in that room was your boss Bryce Harrison?"

"I'm not telling you." Replied the henchman.

"I thought you might say that. So I'm going to give a choice right now, you can go ahead and keep giving me all these bullshit answers. Or…no I shouldn't say it."

"Say what?"

"The thing I'm about to do you if you give me another bullshit answer."

"And what's that?"

"Which one is Bryce Harrison?"

"What?"

Dustin at that moment got really angry, grabbed the henchman by his chest, slammed him into the wall and activated his wraith ray in his hands.

"SAY 'WHAT' AGAIN! SAY 'WHAT' AGAIN, I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE DARE YOU MOTHER F*%&amp;ER, SAY 'WHAT' ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME!"

**Meanwhile…**

Artemis and Jackson were in a secret room full of computers in Dustin's Pad, watching Dustin interrogate the henchman in confusion. Both Artemis and Jackson remove their headsets.

"Did Dustin watch Pulp Fiction last night?" Artemis asked. "Because that was definitely Pulp Fiction he quoted."

"Sigh. No, he watched it an hour before the mission." Replied Jackson.

"Does he honestly think that's going to work?"

"Got it!" Dustin screamed on the TV screen.

"What?" Uttered both Jackson and Artemis.

"Yeah, I got the information and boy did this guy sing. Turns out that dude has never watched Pulp Fiction before, and what I did to him just now was the scariest thing he's ever seen."

Artemis and Jackson both glare at the screen.

(Nereid &amp; Requiem) Figured.

"I'm going to go get him, for reals, now." Said Dustin. "I'll be back in thirty minutes."

**One Minute Later…**

The men in the main room of the factory were recovering from the Phantom's attack.

"What a dumbass." Said one of the men. "He thought Chase was the boss!"

"Guess you were right Boss." Said another henchman. "He really is the biggest idiot to walk the Earth."

All the men in the room start to laugh really hard, that is until the Phantom returns to the room with the man called Chase in his hands. The Phantom without saying a word throws Chase into several henchmen and grabs the real boss this time a white male with grey hair and was wearing a black suit.

(Phantom) Fancy moustache my ass Jackson.

"Hi-ya Brycie." Dustin whispered into Bryce's ear. "You're coming with me."

Phantom flies through the floor again and out of the factory with the boss in his right arm.

"I got the right person this time." Said Dustin on his ear communicator.

"Good work, I guess." Replied Jackson on the other line.

"Alright Dustin, bring him on over to the SFPD Station for questioning." Said Artemis on the ear communicator. "That is if you can handle that."

"Of course I can handle it." Said Dustin. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"The dumbass that almost took one of my underlings with you instead of me." Said Harrison as he laughed into Dustin's face.

Dustin got irritated by Harrison's laughter and decided to hold him by one leg as he hung him upside down and allowed his head to smack the ocean water several times.

"Ahh!" Harrison screamed in fear. "This ain't funny man! Pull me back up!"

"Nope." Uttered Dustin. "You call me a dumbass in front of my face and this is what you get."

**SFPD Station, San Francisco, CA- 10:56 p.m.**

Police Officer's were walking in and out of the station when the Phantom came flying in and dropped Harrison off in front of everyone. The police are shocked and look up at Phantom.

"That's Bryce Harrison, Drug Cartel Leader." Said Dustin. "So go do, well, you know… the thing where you interrogate him and get the information and what not...yeah…Bye."

Dustin flies into the air and back to his house. The cops look down at Bryce Harrison and Harrison reacts by smiling nervously.

**Meanwhile…**

Back on the drug cartel factory island, all the men were trying to rush everything into the boats and escape the island before police arrive.

"Come on!" Screamed one of the men. "We have to get out of here before the cops arrive!"

One of the men was going through a crate when suddenly a very large being stood in the shadow behind him.

"_BORN ON A MONDAY_…" Said the large being.

The man in the crate turns around trembling and was instantly startled when he see's the being.

"What the hell!" Screamed the man. "What are you?" The large being walks more into the light to reveal itself to the man. The man became extremely shocked as if he recognizes the being. "Cyrus…?"

The large being backhands the man and launches him into the air and lands in front of everyone else by the boats. All the henchmen are shocked and look up to see the large being walking towards them.

"What is that?!" screamed of one of the men.

"Who cares!?" Screamed another man. "Kill it!"

All the henchmen open fire on the large being and as soon as the bullets hit the large being, the being roared loudly and charged the henchmen. The large being batted several henchmen across the area with its large arms and then grabbed one of the boats on the coast and threw it at all the other boats to destroy them. Every henchman on the coast was either taken out or dead except for one. The last henchman's vision was blurry, as if he was about to pass out, and before he does he watched in utter horror as the large being, which revealed in the moonlight to be a large pale skinned zombie, with white hair and wore what looks like to be a mafia business suit; stared at the lights of San Francisco in the distance and then descended into the ocean towards the direction.

**The Next Day…**

**Dustin's Pad, San Francisco, CA- 12:09p.m. **

Dustin was sitting on his living room couch watching TV by himself. An idea then comes to Dustin's head and he looks around to see if Artemis and Jackson were still home.

"Guess no one is home." Said Dustin.

Dustin reaches under his couch and pulls out what looks like to be a glass bong and a grinder full of "tree". Dustin took the "tree" and began to pack it in the bowl of his bong.

(Phantom) All right I'll admit it. When it comes to being a role model for people, I am definitely in the top ten worst of all time. What can I say, I love tree. It's just a habit I never stopped since High School. What was I doing again? Oh yeah.

Dustin started to smoke his bong when suddenly on the TV screen; an urgent News Report takes over the program.

"This Just In!" Said the Female News Reporter. "We go live to what looks like to be a serious car chase after they had just robbed the bank on Golden Gate Avenue."

Dustin instantly blows out all the smoke and coughs several times.

"Shit!" Dustin screamed. "F*%$! I hate dealing with car chases stoned!" Dustin began look through the cabinets. "Alright calm down Dustin. You just got to find it, and you'll be Ooooo-kay." Dustin grabs an eye drop capsule. "Yes! Nothing cures the high than a few eye drops."

(Phantom) Okay I'm lying to myself. I just don't want Artemis and Jackson to know I went on a car chase baked out of my mind because they will get r-eeeeeally irritated if they did.

**Meanwhile… **

On Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco, four police cruisers were pursuing the car that was reported on the news. One of the crooks in the car pulls out an RPG and points it at the cops.

"Might want to cover your ears boys." Said the crook armed with the RPG. "Hey Pigs! Have a taste of this!"

The crook fired the RPG in front of the cops and two of the cop cars that were in front get tossed back from the explosion and land on the other two that were behind. All the crooks in the car laughed while they high fived each other in celebration for losing the cops.

"Alright boys." Said the driver. "It's smooth sailing from…here?"

In the rear view mirror of the car, the driver notices Dustin in his Phantom outfit flying directly behind.

"What the hell?" said one of the crooks. "Is that the Phantom guy I've been hearing about lately?"

"Who cares?" Replied the crook in the passenger seat as he broke the window to point his UZI submachine gun out the window. "Just shoot him."

All the other crooks do the same and point their weapons at Dustin. Dustin shook his head.

(Phantom) If those guys think they're going to hit me with those weapons, they're sadly mistaken.

The crooks all fired their weapons and Dustin quickly used his intangibility and flew low to avoid most of the bullets. Dustin uses his wraith ray to try and take out one of the tires but accidentally misses and hits a fire hydrant that goes flying into the air and crashes into one of the house's windows on that street.

(Phantom) Dammit, my high is affecting my ability to aim correctly.

An angry woman pops her head out of the destroyed window and glares at Dustin.

"What the hell my window and floor is ruined!" She screamed.

"Sorry!" Replied Dustin. "It was for a good cause!"

The car then takes a quick right on Divisadero Street and Dustin attempts to try and use his wraith ray again but he misses.

(Phantom) I really can't hit anything right now, can I?

The wraith ray blasts a hole into an oncoming McDonalds truck and the trucker reacts extremely pissed.

"Seriously!" The trucker screamed. "I just got this job last week!"

"It was for a good cause!" Dustin responded as he continued to pursue the car.

The car eventually reaches the Golden Gate Bridge and began to pick an incredible amount of speed while passing all the other cars. The crook in the passenger seat pulls out his UZI machine gun and began to spray barrages of bullets towards any other unfortunate vehicle next to them. One of the cars lost too much control and drove off the bridge. Dustin is shocked when he notices the car and quickly flies under the car to catch it.

(Phantom) Holy shit this car is heavy. How does Superman make this look so easy?

As Dustin dealt with the rescued vehicle, the crooks in the car celebrated for losing the Phantom.

"Well." Said the driver. "I guess that takes care of…" The Driver is suddenly shocked by something else. "Oh come on! Another one!"

About ten cars ahead of the culprits, Jackson stood there in his Nereid outfit, waiting patiently for the vehicle to get closer to him.

"What's he doing?" asked one of the men in the backseat.

"I don't know?" Said the man in the passenger seat. "Just run him over!"

The driver put his foot on the pedal all the way to give the vehicle more gas. Jackson however, smirked and began to walk slowly towards the car. As soon as the culprits' vehicle was close enough to Jackson, Jackson's eel tattoos glowed bright and then he quickly drew out of one of his water sabers to make a clean cut down the middle of the car. The car split in two and both of the halves slid on the ground past Jackson with the crooks still in it. One of the crooks in the backseat of the car tried to escape but Artemis in her Requiem outfit appeared right in front of him last minute and gives him a knock out clothesline. Three of the crooks in one of the halves of the car were attempting to escape before Jackson appeared right in front of them, holding his water sabers toward them.

"I'd reconsider on getting up if I were you chumps." Said Jackson with an intimidating tone.

Anger grew within the culprits before finally giving in and raising their hands up.

"Smart." Uttered Jackson.

However, on the other half of the car, the culprit that was sitting in the passenger seat got up from the car and pointed his Uzi at Jackson ever so confidently.

"If I'm going to the slammer." Uttered the culprit. "Then I'm at least taking one of you with me."

Artemis looks up and is shocked to see the culprit attempting to shoot Jackson from behind.

"NEREID BEHIND YOU!" She screamed.

Jackson quickly looks behind and is startled to see the man holding a weapon towards him. Before the man could shoot, a ray blasts the crooks weapon out of his hand. Jackson, Artemis and the crook are shocked and look over in the air to see where the blast came from. In the air, Dustin came flying in towards the crook.

"Yes!" Screamed Dustin. "It's about damn time I finally hit something with this ray!"

Dustin socks the crook in the face and then walks over the crooks body on the ground. Dustin crouches down and slaps the crook in the face.

"Say I'm the man." Said Dustin.

"What?" Replied the crook.

Dustin slaps the crook again.

"You heard me! Say it!"

"Pfft, I'm the man."

Dustin socks crook in the stomach.

"You know what I mean!"

"Ugh…Okay! Okay! You're the man! You're the man!"

"You god damn right I am!" Dustin socks the crook in the face to knock out him out and gets up from his spot to look at Artemis and Jackson "Great work team, just as I had planned out. Especially what you did to that vehicle Nereid, that was legit."

Artemis got closer to Dustin and examined him closely. Dustin began to sweat and look around nervously.

"Uhh…something bothering you Requiem?"

Artemis smelled Dustin and instantly covered her nose.

"By the gods! Really Phantom!?"

"What?" replied Dustin still nervously. "What did I do?"

Jackson got closer to Dustin as well and instantly shook his head in disappointment.

"Seriously Phantom…" Said Jackson irritably. "While crime fighting."

"Seriously, I'm lost."

"You're high Phantom!" Screamed Artemis angrily.

"What?...No!" Replied Dustin still nervously. "I-I'm not high. Whatever made you two think that?"

"Well for one you reek of a certain scent I despise to inhale and secondly…"

"Your left eye is still bloodshot red Phantom." Said Jackson

Dustin is shocked by Jackson's statement and grabs the mirror off the split vehicle to observe his eye.

"God dammit…" Dustin said under his breath. "I only put the drops in my right eye."

(Phantom) Really need to focus on that next time.

Dustin looks back at Artemis and Jackson awkwardly.

"Well, I see you two have it under control." Said Dustin while scratching the back of his head. "So I'll see you at the house, later!"

"Phantom wait!" Artemis and Jackson both exclaimed.

However, Dustin had already flown into the air invisible and was nowhere to be seen. Artemis squints her eyes in utter frustration.

"Oh, we're giving him a talk when we get home." Said Artemis.

**Four Years Ago…**

**Bludhaven, NJ**

On the rooftops of the buildings in Bludhaven, two figures were grappling their way around the city in the moonlight. The two figures set down on to the street level and it is revealed to be Nightwing in his blue outfit and Batgirl in her grey outfit. Lightning then strikes the sky and it soon began to rain heavily.

"Are you sure this is the location?" asked Batgirl.

"The report said there was a disturbance in this vicinity." Replied Nightwing.

Nightwing turns on the thermal scanner on his mask. On Nightwing's scanner, a large trail of heat signatures were discovered and it led to an alley ahead of the two.

"And something tells me the disturbance hasn't left yet."

"What did you find?"

"There's a large heat trail that leads into the alley right in front of us."

"What's the substance made out of?"

"The substance seems to be…Oh."

"What?"

"That's odd, I've never had this actually happen before. The substance on my scanner is… unknown."

"Unknown? What does that mean?"

Nightwing pulls out his escrima sticks.

"It means we might have a possible threat. Stay alert and get close to me."

Nightwing and Batgirl slowly descend into the alley, checking every corner and trash bin until they finally reached the end where they found someone hiding while also shivering in fear. The person, who was shivering in fear, is revealed to be Dustin. Nightwing shines his escrima stick in the direction of Dustin.

"Alright buddy." Said Nightwing "Hands where we can see them."

"STAY BACK!" screamed Dustin as the hand he used to stop them glowed with an extremely bright purple color. "I… I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Easy now. We're the good guys. We don't want to hurt you if you haven't done anything wrong."

"All we want to know." Asked Batgirl. "Is what happened to you?"

Dustin started to calm down and the bright light from Dustin's hand faded and revealed to the two who he was. Nightwing's eyes were shocked.

"Dustin? Dustin McCarthy?"

"Y-yeah… how did…"

"Uhh…"

"The Draft." Replied Batgirl instantly. "We watched you get drafted earlier on TV."

"Oh…schwaaaay." Replied Dustin but suddenly passes out and lands on the ground.

"What do we do with him Dick? We can't just take him to the authorities."

"You're right Babs, we're not taking him to the authorities."

"Then what are we doing with him?"

"He's coming with us."

**Present…**

**Dustin's Pad, San Francisco, CA- 2:09 p.m.**

Dustin was relaxing on the living room couch, watching a baseball game on TV while at the same time eating stacks of pancakes.

"Oh my gawd." Said Dustin as he swallowed his bite. "I looove pancakes. It literally is an orgasm in my mouth." Artemis and Jackson then appear and stand right in front of the TV so Dustin couldn't see. "Move out of the way! The A's are playing the Angels right now and brawls usually happen during divisional games."

"We need to talk." Said Artemis as she crossed her arms so boldly.

"About what?"

Jackson grabs the remote control from the table in front of Dustin and changes the channel to the news. On the news, the same lady that had her window smashed from earlier was being interviewed from a reporter.

"…yeah, that Phantom guy" Said the lady angrily "destroyed my window and wrecked my floor…"

Jackson changes the channel again to a different news network. On the news, the same truck driver from earlier as well was being interviewed from a different reporter.

"…I got fired because of that Phantom guy!" Screamed the truck driver. "But then again they were going to lay me off anyways at the end of this week…"

Jackson changes the channel once more, to some random guy that was affected, being interviewed by the news.

"…he said 'it was for a good cause'." Said the guy. "Yeah, good cause my a-beep…"

Jackson turns off the TV, and Artemis and him look at Dustin.

"Oh…" Replied Dustin awkwardly. "THAT, is what you two wanted to talk about… So I screwed up, accidents happen. Right?"

"Dustin, all of those 'accidents' could have been prevented during that car chase." Said Artemis irritated "If you weren't stoned out of your mind."

"What was I supposed to do?" replied Dustin. "You two weren't around and I couldn't just let those f*$%tards get away with all that money."

"True." Replied Jackson. "But then again you could have always just CALLED us and we would have dealt with it with no problem."

Dustin glared at his phone on the table and face palms.

"…I really need to start using my brain more."

"Look Dustin." Said Artemis. "I get you don't really care about most things in the world…BUT our public image to the city is something you HAVE to care about if you want to be a vigilante in this city. Without a good public image, how is the city supposed to ever look at us as their trusty guardians."

Dustin looks down and continues to eat his pancakes.

"Were not saying you have to quit tree." Said Jackson. "Even though that is what Artemis originally wanted. But for your sake and especially our sake, try to lay off it during the day…and maybe in general too."

Dustin lets out a big sigh before sinking into the couch.

"Okay." Said Dustin. "But I still get to do it in the house."

"Hell no." Replied Artemis.

"Fair enough. So anyways, where were you two earlier?"

"That brings us to the next discussion." Said Jackson. "And I think we should take this to the basement."

"Yes!" Said Dustin happily. "I love the basement."

**Moments later…**

Dustin, Artemis and Jackson walk down the stairs to the basement and Dustin flicks on the power switch. The basement's power turns on and it is revealed to be the size of a large warehouse. With one area being the computers &amp; crime investigation work, another area being the training ground and the last area being the equipment &amp; vehicle inventory.

"The best thing about living on a mountainside." Said Dustin. "It gives a lot of room underneath the house to build cool shit like this. Though I do imagine the Batcave being way bigger than this."

Dustin, Artemis and Jackson sit down at the computer and Artemis turns it on.

"The reason Jackson and I were not at the house this afternoon." Said Artemis "Was because the police went to the drug cartel island last night."

"And?" asked Dustin.

"Only to discover that every drug cartel member there was slaughtered, along with every boat there stacked onto the other."

"Damn…I never really thanked Jason for helping Dick and I build this basement before he died. Does that make me a bad person?"

Jackson and Artemis glared at each.

"Anyways, there was a survivor of the attack." Said Jackson.

"But he's still in the hospital bed knocked out." Replied Artemis.

"Bummer." Said Dustin. "So let me guess, we're going back to that island to investigate."

"That is correct." Said Artemis "Let's suit up."

Artemis and Jackson leave their seats and rush over to their outfits leaving Dustin still at the computer.

"I was just kidding. We actually have to go back to that island?"

**(Former) Drug Cartel Island, Pacific Ocean- 4:20 p.m.**

Artemis, Jackson and Dustin were on the beach of the island, observing the destruction that was caused the night before. Artemis and Jackson were looking through the evidence thoroughly on the beach while Dustin was bored and began to stack up several objects on the beach and use them as target practice.

"Find anything yet?" Asked Jackson.

"Nothing." Artemis replied stressfully. "Not a single thing…Anything on your part Dustin?...Dustin?"

Artemis and Jackson look over to see Dustin in an old western stance, staring off at the objects he had placed. Right when Dustin was in mid action of firing his wraith ray, Artemis screams.

"DUSTIN!"

"Ahhh!" Dustin is startled and his wraith ray accidentally blasts the boat that he had placed the objects on. "God Dammit Artemis! Look what you made me do!" Artemis and Jackson glared at Dustin as he began to rant. "I mean seriously, I just got done setting this up for myself." Dustin storms over to the spot. "Great, now I gotta set it up all over a-…gain?" Dustin stops in front of the spot and is shocked to find an extremely large human footprint. "Holy shit that's a huge ass footprint!"

Artemis and Jackson are interested and rush over to observe Dustin's discovery.

"Seriously?" Said Artemis. "How is it every time Jackson and I are trying to find evidence, Dustin JUST so happens to find it every time?"

Dustin smirks, takes in a lot of air to the lungs and began to sing I'm the man by Aloe Blacc.

"Well you can tell everybody. Yeah you can tell everybody. Go ahead and tell everybody. I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man. Yes I am, yes I…"

Artemis and Jackson ignore the rest of Dustin's singing and continued to observe the footprint.

"What do you think Jackson?" asked Artemis.

"Definitely not normal." Replied Jackson. "Has to be some sort of meta-human to create a foot print that size. But my question is, if the police didn't run into the meta-human when they came to the island last night, then where did the meta-human go?"

(Requiem) That gave me a chill down my spine.

**Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA- 4:37p.m. **

On the beach, hundreds of civilians were enjoying the bright sunny day on the beach. Two kids, a boy and a girl, were storming to the ocean water excitedly while holding boogie boards when something startled them and a large shadow was casted above the two. The children screamed.

"MONSTER!" Screamed the children and ran away.

Everyone's attention was drawn to what the children were screaming about and they too began to run screaming in fear. The monster is finally revealed and it is the same monster that had attacked the drug cartel island. The monster lifts his fists into the air and unleashes an extremely loud war cry that echoes throughout the entire bay, inflicting fear into anyone who hears it.

"SOLOMON GRUNDY! BORN ON A MONDAY!" the monster roared.

**Will The Rejects be able to stop Solomon Grundy?**

**Next Issue: The Rejects vs. Solomon Grundy**


	7. The Rejects vs Solomon Grundy

**Issue #7: The Rejects vs. Solomon Grundy**

**One-Year Ago…**

**Drug Cartel Island, Pacific Ocean**

The sun over the horizon was starting to set, as several members of the drug cartel were beginning to construct what looked like to be a factory. While the henchmen were busy, two men stood at a distance, gazing the view of the factory with admiration and accomplishment. One of the men is revealed to be Bryce Harrison and the other to be an unknown affiliate who was Caucasian and had brown hair. The unknown affiliate places his hand on Bryce's shoulder.

"I can't thank you enough for this well thought out plan Bryce." Said the affiliate.

"Hey, anytime Cyrus." Replied Bryce. "It's what partners are for."

"As soon as this factory gets built, we'll be able to smuggle all the varieties of drugs we have in stored in and out of The Bay and rule the drug trade."

"True…But have you considered about expanding the drug trade Mr. Gold?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well just think about it, we can make a good amount of money JUST in The Bay…But we can make a FORTUNE if we expanded all around the West Coast."

"Perhaps…But we would also be attracting the wrong attention as well Mr. Harrison."

"But…"

"See, that's what you don't understand yet about running a drug trade business. You gotta start out slow, make your first trade location your home location. If the business runs well, then we will think about expansion. But at the mean time, the drug operation will stay here in the Bay as planned. Do I make myself clear?"

Bryce squinted his eyes in despise at Cyrus but then grins as if he has a devious idea now.

"Hey Cyrus," He said so boldly "Did I ever tell you there's a swamp on this island?"

"No, I don't believe you ever did?"

"Yeah, it's pretty gruesome looking if you ask me? Would you like me to give you a tour?"

"Sure partner."

Cyrus and Bryce began to walk to the vicinity of the island with the swamp.

"I'm telling ya Bryce," Cyrus said as he placed his arm over Bryce's shoulder "this is looking like the beginning of a bright future for our partnership."

"Yeah, same here Mr. Gold." Replied Bryce as he pulled a handgun secretly from his back pocket. "Bright future…"

**Present…**

**Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA- 4:37 p.m.**

Solomon Grundy was going on an extreme rampage on the beach, swapping away all the umbrellas or any object that stood in his away. Police cruisers arrive to the scene quickly and several SFPD officers disperse holding handguns.

"Stop!" screamed one of the officers. "Or we will open fire!"

Grundy didn't take the officers demand seriously and chucked a boulder by the officer's vicinity.

"Open fire!"

All the officers unleashed a massive barrage of bullets at Solomon Grundy and continued to do so. However, the bullets seemed ineffective to Solomon Grundy, as he seemed to have only got angrier from it and raged.

"SOLOMON GRUNDY!" He screamed loudly. "MUST HURT BLUE PEOPLE!"

"Oh shit…" Uttered one of the officers.

Solomon Grundy roared loudly and charged quickly at the SFPD officers.

"Take cover!" Screamed one of the officers.

Solomon Grundy uses his shoulder to truck a police cruiser into the air and it lands on two civilian vehicles that were parked by the coast. Officers recovered from the impact and continued to fire their handguns on Solomon Grundy. Grundy turn's his head to give the officers an intimidating stare and then uses his massive fists to smash the ground hard and cause the concrete floor below the officers crumble. Some of the unfortunate officers were launched into the air due to the impact and Grundy quickly reacted by swatting them all over the place. Grundy then grabs one of the police cruisers and launches it over into another police cruiser and the two vehicles explode. Solomon Grundy continued to pursue the city of San Francisco as one of the surviving officers grabs his radio communicator.

"Come in!" He screamed. "This is Lt. Rodriguez! Normal force won't work on this bastard! Send in the National Guard!"

**Meanwhile…**

**(Former) Drug Cartel Island, Pacific Ocean**

Dustin, Artemis and Jackson are still on the drug cartel island but the three are then startled by the commotion going on in the distance at Ocean beach. Artemis and Jackson stand up from observing the footprint and Dustin stops singing to himself.

"How much you want to bet our meta-human is on the beach right now?" Said Jackson.

"My left nut." Replied Dustin.

Artemis and Jackson glared at Dustin for a moment.

"What? I'm that confident."

Artemis pinched her eyes.

"Look, it sounds like our metahuman is causing collateral damage to the Bay right now." Said Artemis. "You two go ahead and deal with him. I'll try to catch up."

"Right." Replied Dustin and Jackson.

Dustin flies up into the air and quickly darts toward the bay. Jackson quickly jumps into the ocean and swims extremely fast in the sea towards the coast. Artemis sighs in disappointment and hops onto the Jet Ski.

"Sometimes I really hate being the last one to arrive to the fight." Artemis uttered.

**Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA- 4:47**

Several civilians at the Golden Gate Park were enjoying themselves on the grass, having picnics and partaking in certain activities. Suddenly, most of the people from the beach come rushing in, screaming off the top of their lungs. Most of the people at the park were confused but then soon discover what everyone was running away from as Solomon Grundy appears by knocking down a couple trees. Then the park civilians react the same as everyone else and began to flee. Solomon Grundy grabs one of the trees he had knocked down and begins swinging it around berserk like. Grundy hits a few civilians with the tree and continues to rampage. A young red headed woman started to run but instantly stops to remember her baby.

"My baby!" She screamed in horror. "Where is she?"

The woman turns around to see her baby's stroller by the pathway and quickly rushes over to get her child. However, as soon as she grabs the child, a large shadow overshadows her and it spooks the woman.

"Karen behind you!" Screamed a man in the distance.

The woman turns around but trips to the ground holding her baby tight and screaming in terror as Solomon Grundy stood over her with his leg ready to stomp on the woman and her child.

"Hey ugly!" Screamed a familiar voice.

Grundy's attention is drawn by the voice and as soon as his head turns, he receives a fat punch from Dustin.

"Boom Shack A Lak A!" Dustin screamed tauntingly.

The force of Dustin's punch was too much for Grundy that he dropped the tree he was holding and flew back a few yards into the grassy lawn. Jackson then appears as well to give Dustin some support.

"That's right bitch! Stay down!"

"Are you all right ma'am?" Jackson said in concern to the women.

Jackson helps the woman and her child up from the ground.

"I am now." The woman replied as she began to run with the other civilians. "Thanks Aqualad and…friend?"

Dustin and Jackson's expressions change from delighted to extremely bothered.

"Aqualad?" Jackson uttered in confusion. "I've never even met Aquaman before."

"At least she called you something!" Dustin whined. "I'm only known as…'the friend'."

Solomon Grundy began to get up from Dustin's punch and points directly at Dustin with an extremely pissed off expression.

"ANNOYING TALKING PUNY PURPLE MAN!" Grundy screamed. "HURT GRUNDY!"

"I think he likes you." Said Jackson as he smirked at Dustin.

"Really!? You don't say!?" Replied Dustin sarcastically as he gave Jackson a Nicholas Cage meme glare. "Now lets get serious Nereid and show this meta-freak what happens when he messes with our city!"

Jackson grins and pulls out his water sabers.

"Thought you'd never ask. Lets get him!"

Dustin flies up into the air and flies around to the right side of Solomon Grundy while firing his wraith ray several times at him. The rays were ineffective and it only pissed off Grundy even more. Grundy was about to strike at Dustin but Grundy forgets about Jackson and Jackson quickly creates two hammers with his sabers and clobbers Grundy in the face then stomach.

"ARGH!" Grundy screamed in frustration. "GRUNDY KILL YOU DEAD!"

Grundy uses his arm to try and swat Jackson with a backhand but Jackson dodges the attack by ducking and then strikes Grundy in the chest with a saber attack. Dustin then comes flying in with both his feet out in front and stomps Grundy's face. Grundy got dizzy from the attack and began to feel his head. Dustin then sets down next to Jackson.

"That Nereid." Said Dustin. "Is how you literally stomp the yard."

"Do you ever shut up?" Replied Jackson.

"Only when I blackout…and when Requiem scares me."

Grundy shook his head several times to shake off the dizziness and then glares at Dustin and Jackson.

"Dammit!" Whined Dustin. "Can't you just stay down?"

"Well look on the bright side." Replied Jackson. "As long as we keep our distance, he can't hit us."

A green gas began to spore out of Grundy's back as his veins and eyes began to glow bright. Grundy then stomps the ground extremely hard to cause the ground to shake below Dustin and Jackson. Skeleton and zombie arms then appear from the ground and grabs both Jackson and Dustin tight. Dustin glares at Jackson.

"What was that about he can't get us at a long distance?" He uttered.

"Shut up Phantom and help me get out of this!" Jackson screamed.

Dustin quickly uses his Wraith Ray to blast the arms off of Jackson's legs. As soon as Jackson is freed, Jackson returns the favor by using his water sabers to cut the arms off of Dustin's legs.

"Alright Nereid, let's…"

Dustin is shocked to realize that Grundy disappeared when they were preoccupied and kicks a rock out of frustration.

"Shit!" He rambled. "Where'd he go?"

Jackson looks on the ground to notice footprints heading to the streets.

"He must have slipped away to the city when he had us caught." Replied Jackson.

"Figures." Said Dustin boldly. "Guess he just couldn't handle the bro-namic duo."

Dustin then looks at his arm to notice a zombie arm still latched on to him.

"Ahhhh!" Dustin screamed. "Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"

At that moment, Artemis had finally arrived to the battle and eagerly rushed over to Dustin and Jackson.

"I'm finally here you two!" She said. "Hope I didn't miss too much."

Dustin then finally gets the zombie arm off of his arm and the arm goes flying into the air, only to land and grip onto Artemis's face. Artemis slowly grabs the arm off of her face, only to realize in horror what it was and screams.

"Aughhhh!" Artemis screamed. "What the hell Phantom!"

"Uh oh…" Dustin uttered.

Fire was engulfed into the eyes of Artemis as she quickly grabbed Dustin by the chest and started shaking him several times.

"What is wrong with you!?" Artemis screamed. "Is your primary function in life to purposely piss me off any chance you get!?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Dustin replied while also fearing for his life. "It wasn't intentional I swear!"

Jackson rolls his eyes in disbelief.

"Will you two cut it out!?" Jackson yelled. "We still need to stop our meta-human! Remember?"

Artemis stops shaking Dustin and drops him to the ground. Dustin quickly springs up and gives Artemis a dirty look while he fixes his visor.

"Well he couldn't have gotten that far." Said Dustin. "I'll go ahead and slow him down. You two try to catch up."

Dustin flies up into the air and quickly follows the footsteps to try and find Grundy in the city; while Artemis and Jackson quickly try to follow Dustin from behind.

"So Nereid?" Asked Artemis. "What's this meta-human we are dealing with like?"

"To put it into the best way possible." Replied Jackson. "He looks like a roided out zombie?"

"…Seriously?"

"I'm not even joking. Phantom and I seemed to have dealt with him fine but he can be pretty unpredictable, so expect the unexpected from this guy."

Artemis quickly draws her long sword from her back.

"Believe me, unpredictable is nothing new when our leader is the prime definition of that word."

Jackson smirks.

"Not going to argue with that statement."

**Market St./Van Ness Ave., San Francisco **

The streets were packed with cars and the traffic seemed to not be moving either. A lot of angry drivers were getting heated due to the traffic. Especially one certain Taxi driver that's completely lost his mind.

"Come on!" He screamed. "I want to make it back home before the game starts! Lousy city traffic."

As the driver sat in his cab irritated, in the rear mirror view he notices several people getting out of their cars and sprinting away from something.

"What the he-."

The cab driver began to tremble as his vehicle was lifted into the air. The cab driver sticks his head out the window and looks underneath the car, only to be horrified as it turns out to be Solomon Grundy; trying to clear a path with the cab driver's vehicle.

"Ahh! Put me down! Put me down!"

Grundy then chucks the vehicle and the cab began to make a course towards the nearby Honda dealership center. The cab driver places his hands out in front to not witness the collision but is shocked when the car is suddenly stopped. The cab driver is relieved as the Phantom is revealed to have caught the vehicle before it crashes.

"You alright buddy?" Dustin asked as he ripped the door off the cab.

The cab driver quickly gets out of the vehicle and gives Dustin a dirty look.

"What?! You couldn't have gotten here sooner!" The cab driver screamed as he ran off with the rest of the crowd.

Dustin squinted his eyes at the cab driver.

(Phantom) Well, that's the last time I do that guy a favor. Ungrateful prick.

Dustin looks over to see Grundy in the middle of the intersection swatting all the vehicles around him. Dustin then whistles.

"Hey you overgrown gorilla!" Dustin screamed as he waved his hands around. "Come at me bro!"

Grundy grunted while also grinding his teeth and grabs a nearby street light post. Dustin quickly flies into the middle of the intersection and sets down to face off with Grundy. Grundy roared aggressively and swung the street pole at Dustin. Dustin smirks and uses his intangibility to let the pole go through him.

"Nope." Said Dustin.

Grundy swings again.

"Nada."

Grundy got even angrier and began to swing consecutively but every time he did Dustin would just use his intangibility and say some smart-ass remark after.

"Strike one. Strike two. Strrrrr-ike three! You're out of there!"

Dustin then strikes at Grundy and uppercuts him in the chin to cause Grundy to land on his rear. Dustin began to laugh.

"Come on man, it's like you're not even trying right now."

Grundy growled at Dustin, grabbed a car that was by him and chucked it at Dustin. Dustin shook his head and let the car go right through him by using his intangibility.

"Like I said. It's like you're not even…"

Dustin realized at that moment there was a woman behind him trying to get her toddler out of the car but the other cars around them had trapped them inside and the car that Grundy threw was about to land on them.

"No!" Dustin screamed.

However, before Dustin could try to his Wraith Ray on the car, Grundy quickly uses the distraction to his advantage, grabs Dustin by the arm and slams him into the concrete.

(Phantom) Like that, I felt helpless. Useless even. One moment I think I'm at the top of my game, the next I forget to check my surroundings and now I'm watching in distraught as a car is about to smash a poor mother and her child and there's nothing I can do about it. Have to fight harder!

Dustin gets a hold of Grundy's chest and quickly head butts Grundy's face. Dustin quickly gets his free arm steady for his Wraith Ray but realizes it's too late.

(Phantom) Too late, I failed.

The woman and the toddler screamed for their lives as the car was about to hit them but then at the last minute someone appeared on the hood of their vehicle with a long sword drawn out and sliced the vehicle in half. The person was revealed to be Artemis and she sighs in relief.

(Phantom) Yes! Thank you Artemis! Definitely going to make it up for her later. With that done, now I just need to figure out how to stop getting my ass kicked by this stupid zombie.

Artemis quickly turns around to use her strong Amazon legs to leg press one of the vehicles away from the door and then uses her super strength to rip the door off.

"She's strong momma." Uttered the toddler.

Artemis helps the woman and her toddler quickly get out of the car.

"You alright sisters?" Asked Artemis.

"Yes we're fine." Replied the woman as she grabbed her toddler and ran to safety. "Thanks Superwoman!"

Artemis's happy attitude goes away and her right eye began to twitch.

"Superwoman…? I'm not even Kryptonian!"

Jackson then appears next to Artemis.

"Hey. At least you didn't get called something as lame like Aqualad." Said Jackson. "Or in Phantom's case 'the friend'."

"Uhh…Guys!" Screamed Dustin as Grundy continued to swing him around. "Little help?!"

Artemis and Jackson roll their eyes and enter the intersection to help Dustin out.

"Okay Nereid." Said Artemis. "You take the left and I'll take the ri-"

Before Artemis could finish, Grundy finally lets Dustin go and Dustin ends up colliding into Jackson.

"Or I'll just go ahead and take him on my own till you two decide get up."

Artemis began to sprint towards Grundy while also dragging her long sword on the street to create sparks. When Artemis got close enough, she then gets a hold of her sword to strike.

(Requiem) Okay, have to time this right. As soon as he strikes, go for the big hit.

Grundy tries to punch Artemis but Artemis rolls on the street to dodge the punch and then quickly jabs her sword into Grundy.

(Requiem) And like that, it's over.

However, Grundy smirks at Artemis's stab attempt, grabs the sword and reels the sword even deeper into his body.

(Requiem) What!?

Artemis's eyes opened wide as she was shocked by Grundy's abilities.

"What in Hades are you?" Asked Artemis.

"DIED ON A SATURDAY!" Screamed Grundy as he swatted Artemis away from him.

Meanwhile, Dustin was on top of Jackson and was getting up from the collision he had suffered earlier.

"Uhn…" Uttered Dustin. "Thanks for breaking my fall Nereid."

"(Cough) Anytime Phantom." Whimpered Jackson.

Right when Dustin and Jackson got up, Artemis came flying in towards the two and lands on both of them. Jackson quickly gets up in concern for Artemis.

"You okay Requiem?" Asked Jackson.

"I'm fine." Replied Artemis. "You okay Phantom?...Phantom?"

Artemis looks down to notice Dustin's face was in her breasts.

"Mmmmm…." Dustin moaned. "Requiem's dirty pillows."

Artemis then got pissed off and socked Dustin in the head to get off of him.

"Forget I even asked." She uttered. "Where's he heading now?"

"Judging by the trail he's left." Replied Jackson. "He's heading to the police station."

"Why the hell would a zombie with anger problems be interested to the police station?" Asked Dustin as he rubbed the bump on his head.

"You want to go ask him?" Replied Artemis. "Or should I?"

"Nah, I'll do it." Dustin said as he flew up into the air. "Oh, and Requiem. Where's your sword?"

"You mean my dagger? It's right…"

Artemis notices her long sword is nowhere near her.

"Oh Hera…" Artemis uttered.

"What?" Asked Jackson.

"I left my sword in that stupid zombie."

**SFPD Station**

Several SFPD officers in tactical outfits were piling out of the police station with heavy weaponry. Roadblocks were dispersed everywhere on the street as officers prepared themselves for Solomon Grundy. Inside the station's cells, Bryce Harrison was in one of them, curious as to what was going on.

"Hey dummy!" Bryce shouted at one of the officers. "What the hell is going on out there?!"

"Not sure!" Replied the officer. "But something big if they're making me put on this much armor!"

Outside of the station, most of the officers were lined up at the roadblock and ready to take down the threat. One of the officers holding a megaphone gets on top of the roadblock to speak to Solomon Grundy, who was slowly making his decent to the police station.

"Metahuman!" The officer screamed in the megaphone. "This is your final warning! Stand down or feel the full wrath of the San Francisco Police Department!"

Grundy war cried loudly as a response and began to charge at the SFPD policemen.

"You've been warned! Open Fire!"

All the police officers open fired onto Solomon Grundy who reacted by covering his face from the barrages of bullets and then leaps into the air to hop over the roadblock. The police looked up in awe as Grundy glided over them and then lands on top of a police car to crush it. One SWAT officer pulls out an anti-tank launcher and launches it at Grundy. However, Grundy saw the rocket come at him and with his lightning quick reflex caught the rocket with his two fingers.

"Whoa…" Uttered the SWAT officer.

The officers stood there in awe as Grundy flicks the rocket and blows up two police cruisers. Grundy sets his sight onto the police station and breaks into the entrance. A few officers that were inside the station, open fire on Grundy with their handguns but Grundy swats a nearby desk to knock them out. In the jail cells, Bryce Harrison began to worry due to the commotion going on in the station.

"What the hell is going on out there?!" Bryce demanded.

Solomon Grundy then appears in front of Bryce's cell and Bryce reacts by being extremely spooked and terrified. Grundy grabs the cell bars with his gorilla hands and rips the cell door off like it was nothing. Bryce crawled into the corner of the cell while on top of his bed as Grundy slowly lurked toward him.

"Wait! Wait!" Bryce screamed. "Please! Don't hurt me! I'll give you anything you want in the world…like gold. Yeah, everyone likes gold. You like gold…right?"

At that moment, Solomon Grundy growled out of irritation from Bryce's plead and grabs Bryce from the bed with one arm.

"SOLOMON GRUNDY! NO WANT GOLD!" He screamed as he brought Bryce closer to his face. "JUST…HARRISON."

As Grundy held Bryce in front of him, Bryce at that moment began to recognize who Solomon Grundy was, just by looking at the business suit he was wearing. Chills began to consume Bryce everywhere around his body as he slowly hesitated to try and utter something to Grundy.

"Cy-…Cyrus?" Bryce uttered. "…Boss?"

Grundy roared loudly after hearing Bryce's statement and slammed him into the cell floor. Grundy lifts his two fists into the air and tries to smash Bryce. However, at the last minute, someone grabs Grundy from behind and began to lift Grundy up above their head. Bryce was shocked and looked up to see who it was. The visor on the shadowy figure lifting Grundy above him shines in the light and it is revealed to be the Phantom.

"Forget about me already?" Dustin screamed. "I'm hurt."

Dustin throws Grundy into the air and then quickly uses his Wraith ray to blast Grundy out of the building again.

"Then again, I didn't expect much from an ugly ass zombie!"

(Phantom) Ha! Got'em!

Dustin was rubbing his hands together to get the dust off when he notices Bryce slowly trying to sneak out of his cell behind him.

(Phantom) Seriously? Hope the SFPD doesn't mind me doing this.

Dustin rolls his eyes in disbelief and quickly does a spin kick to put Bryce back into his cell unconscious.

(Phantom) Oh whom am I kidding? I was going to do that anyways.

Outside of the police building, Grundy was recovering from the Phantom's wraith ray attack when Nereid and Requiem appear right above him. With lots of aggression, Jackson pulls out his two hydro sabers and slashes Grundy's chest twice before kicking him in the face. Artemis lands on Grundy right after the attack and swipes her long sword out of the zombie's stomach.

"This belongs to me, thank you very much." Artemis roared as she held her sword high into the air with a devilish grin. "Feel the wrath of AMAZONS FURY!"

Artemis viciously slashes Grundy's chest eight times in her state of fury. When Artemis was finished, large gashes left Grundy's body scarred. Grundy roared a bone chilling scream and looks at Artemis and Jackson with intent to kill.

"SOLOMON GRUNDY! MUST KIL…"

Before Grundy could finish his threat, Dustin came flying in and socked Grundy in the face to knock him down to the ground.

"Ohhhhhh!" Dustin screamed. "World Star! World Star! Oh come on you two! You have to admit that was TOTALLY World Star Hip-hop material!"

Artemis and Jackson giggle a little to Dustin's reaction but also try their best to keep a straight face on the situation.

(Nereid) Must…Resist…Laughing.

(Requiem) I'll admit it. Despite Dustin being a complete moron most of the time…he does know how to make Jackson and I crack a smile.

As Solomon Grundy slowly got up, the Rejects got together and stood in front of the creature.

"It's over ugly." Said Dustin so boldly. "Nothing you do at this point is going help you win this…"

Solomon Grundy completely ignores Dustin, grabs a fire hydrant and chucks it at the three.

(Phantom) Sigh. I hate when people never listen to me. But then again, who actually does?

Artemis and Jackson quickly evade the fire hydrant by jumping out of the way while Dustin just stood there allowing the hydrant to go right through him by becoming intangible.

(Phantom) Thank something for my intangibility, otherwise that looked like that would have hurt way worse then being punched in the face by Artemis during that certain time of the month…Did I also mention I'm atheist?

Dustin turns around to see the hydrant heading into the direction of a gas truck.

(Phantom) That doesn't look promising.

The gas tank is impaled by the fire hydrant and the gas inside the tank began to flow into direction of a fire that was near the SFPD Station.

(Phantom) Okay, that definitely does not look promising.

The flame ignites the gas and the gas truck explodes to cause everything within its radius to be destroyed and catch on fire. Dustin stood there in awe, with his left eye slightly twitching.

(Phantom) What the shit? Seriously? What are the honest odds of that happening? I mean come on! Do I ever get a break from f #$ing things up?

Artemis and Jackson both get up and also stare at the fire that was caused by the fire hydrant in disbelief.

"I hope that wasn't expensive." Dustin uttered.

Jackson and Artemis glare at Dustin.

"What? I'm not paying for it. Not my fire hydrant. Not my problem. That's what I always say."

Artemis looks behind and is shocked.

"Hey boys?" She said. "I think our Meta slipped away while we were distracted by the fire."

"Augh!" Dustin screamed with frustration. "ARE…YOU…FISTING…ME?!"

Dustin got on his knees and placed his hands on the sides of his head.

"How do we lose sight of a giant ass zombie?! Please, somebody enlighten me."

As Dustin continued to rant and complain, Artemis was looking around to see if there were any leads. Artemis then notices that a sewer lid was ripped off and a reasonably large hole was left in the street.

(Requiem) I highly doubt that hole was always there.

While Artemis pursued the hole and Dustin still continued to complain; Jackson decided to take the wild fire that was about to erupt into his own hands and uses his hydro-kinesis to gather up all the water coming out of the spot the fire hydrant use to be.

(Nereid) Okay, am I the only one who's realized that fire needs to be put out? I mean that fire is spreading like no other right now and not once has it occurred to Dustin nor Artemis yet that it needs to be put out. Jeez, do I always have to fix everything?

Jackson controls the massive amount of water he had gathered up above the fire and extinguished the problem by dropping it all on it. Jackson started to walk back to Artemis and Dustin when out of nowhere Dustin sprang up onto his feet.

"The fire!" He screamed. "We gotta put out that fire!"

(Nereid) Wow. I'm actually surprised he remembered. But a little too late, don't ya think?

"Already taken cared of." Said Jackson. "But it's the thought you remembered is what counts Phantom."

Dustin smiles at Jackson by showing off his pearly whites.

(Phantom) Ass hat.

"Ahem." Artemis uttered to get their attention. "If you two are done bickering over there, we still have a certain zombie to hunt."

Dustin and Jackson glared at Artemis while they walked toward the hole she was standing in front of.

"I take it are friend decided to hide in the sewers." Said Jackson.

"Looks that way." Replied Artemis.

"I'm not going down there." Dustin uttered.

Artemis and Jackson stare at Dustin.

"Are you kidding me you two? We don't know what's been down there. There might be disease for all we know. And for something's sake it reeks worst than my asshole on wing night."

(Nereid) I'm not going to argue that statement.

"Quit being such a pansy Phantom." Replied Artemis. "Unless you got a better plan to go with at the moment?"

"As a matter in fact I do, Requiem."

(Requiem) Oh, this aught to be interesting.

(Nereid) Please just stop while you're ahead Dustin.

"I get it, you two are probably thinking right now 'Oh, what's good old Phantom going to pull out of his ass this time?' Well let me tell you two, I have been actually paying attention today. And as far as what I have analyzed, this is what I got."

(Requiem) Here we go.

(Nereid) Dammit.

"It seems our zombie friend use to be apart of the drug cartel that we just busted the other day and as a matter in fact I'm willing to bet money he use to be the leader. How he died and became all roided up I still have no idea. But I'm willing to assume that our friend Harrison will know because when I interfered inside the Police Station, he actually recognized the zombie as a person he use to know named Cyrus. Plus, if you really think about it, that mother f*%^er went straight to the Police Station and tried to kill Harrison…Am I not wrong?"

Artemis and Jackson stood there in shock after Dustin's mind-blowing analysis.

(Nereid) Whoa. Did he really just figure that all out on his own?

(Requiem) How in the hell did he figure all that out by such small observations? Seriously, I really want to yell and call him an idiot right now but everything he said just now was spot on…How does he do it sometimes?

"I bet you two are probably thinking right now, 'oh my god, did good old Phantom just figure it out on his own?' If you did, go f#$% yourself! I'm not that big of an idiot you two are always thinking I am…smucks."

(Artemis) I really hate it when he uses that word. Gets under my skin every time.

"Okay Phantom, since you OBVIOUSLY figured out the mystery of our zombie companion. What's your plan to stop him?"

Dustin rolls his eyes to look back at the SFPD Station.

"I think it's time we revisited someone." Said Dustin with a smirk on his face.

**Meanwhile…**

**Sewers, Underneath San Francisco**

Solomon Grundy was recovering from the attack he had suffered from earlier. The giant scars that were left on Grundy's chest began to regenerate as several amounts of green gas began to disperse all around the sewers. Inside the sewer that Grundy was in, were several dead bodies that have dead for what looks like to be centuries. The green gas that came out of Grundy suddenly began to be absorbed by the dead bodies and soon enough the bodies began to rise as if they were reanimated. The zombies began to horde around Grundy as Grundy roared loudly that would echo all the way out of every sewer in San Francisco.

"SOLOMON GRUNDY! WILL RISE!" He roared.

**Grundy's got an army!**

**What will the Rejects do?**

**Next Issue: Putting the nail on the Coffin**


	8. Putting The Nail On The Coffin

**Issue #8: Putting The Nail On The Coffin**

**The Bay, San Francisco, CA**

Over at what was left of the SFPD Station, several policemen were cleaning up the wreck that Solomon Grundy had caused earlier. Some of the other officers were resting on the steps, listening to a local radio station.

"…_Krzzt. I say again. Every civilian within the San Francisco region has been evacuated to the outer rims of the Bay until further notice." _Said the radio announcer. _"And we are now receiving word that the National Guard has been sent over to deal with the problem…"_

Meanwhile, Dustin, Artemis and Jackson were interrogating Bryce Harrison in one of the interrogation rooms.

"Alright Brycie." Said Dustin in a tauntingly tone. "We want the truth about your buddy with the serious anger problems. Right…now."

Bryce Harrison crosses his arms and smirks at Dustin.

"Okay…" Uttered Dustin as he got up from his seat. "You want to play THAT game with me right now…"

Dustin took off his gloves aggressively.

"I'll play that game with you!"

Dustin was about to grab Bryce by the shirt but Jackson quickly grabbed him from behind and held him back. Bryce started to chuckle as he watched Dustin try to get out of Jackson's grip. Artemis smirks at Dustin's behavior and looks at Bryce Harrison.

"Excuse my companion Mr. Harrison." Said Artemis also tauntingly. "I know he doesn't look like the most intimidating hero in the world."

"Hey!" Dustin hollered in the background.

"But I'm going to let you know that your large friend is going to come back here for you again. So unless you want our help from preventing his crazy ass from ripping you apart, I would start by telling us a little more about him."

Harrison glared at Artemis and then at Dustin one more time to see he was still struggling to get out Jackson's grasp before he took a deep breath.

"The creature that refers to himself as Solomon Grundy use to be an old business partner of mine named Cyrus Gold." Said Harrison. "How he got big like that, I have no clue."

"Well that's a good start Mr. Harrison." Said Artemis. "Do you care to tell us now how Mr. Gold ended up dead in the first place? According to these old criminal files we have here, Gold was never recorded deceased and still considered to be on the loose."

Bryce Harrison twiddled his handcuffed thumbs around and rolled his eyes before giving Artemis an answer.

"I don't know." Said Harrison. "I thought he was still alive too."

(Phantom, Requiem &amp; Nereid) Bull Shit.

Artemis pinches her eyes together and then smiles sarcastically at Bryce Harrison.

"And just as I expected." Said Artemis. "You're still not going to give us 'every' detail about Cyrus Gold." Bryce Harrison smirks but then stops when Artemis got up to leave. "Well, thank you for your time Mr. Harrison." Said Artemis. "But we really need to get more information about Cyrus Gold, so we're just going to go ahead and ask our other consultant."

Bryce at that moment raised his brow out of concern.

"What other consultant?" He asked.

"Oh you didn't know? One of your thugs that was mauled by Solomon Grundy last night is still alive and in the hospital. And I'm sure he'll be willing to answer any question we ask him, especially if it were to help him reduce his sentence and increase yours."

In the back of the room, Jackson was smirking to Artemis's trickery but Dustin on the other hand was scratching his head out of confusion.

(Nereid) Damn, Artemis can be very deceiving when she wants to be. I can almost understand now why Dustin's afraid of her. Speaking of Dustin, has he figured out Artemis is lying about the person.

"What consultant?" Dustin asked Jackson. "I thought that dude in the hospital was in a coma with several broken…"

(Nereid) Nope. Time to shut him up…again.

Jackson places his hands on Dustin's mouth to shut him up.

"He is." Jackson whispered. "But if you had the brains to figure out Artemis is lying to Harrison right now, then I wouldn't have to shut you up and prevent you from blabbing your mouth again."

Dustin squinted his eyes and then crossed his arms together while looking the other direction.

(Phantom) My power is to beat the shit out of people. Not read people's f%&amp;*ing minds. Sheesh, do I have to honestly be able to know 'everything' that goes into both of your brains at all times.

"So what's it going to be Mr. Harrison?" Said Artemis. "You going to let us know what happened, or are we going to have to ask…"

"Alright already!" Harrison blurted out. "I'll f%&amp;*ing talk. But I get to go back to talking to him again!"

Harrison pointed at Dustin and Dustin reacts sarcastically humbled. Artemis looks at Dustin confused and then looks back at Harrison even more confused.

"Why would you want to talk HIM again?" Artemis asked. "I'm way more smarter and capable of holding an intelligent conversation."

"Yeah and you also scare the living shit out of me." Harrison replied instantly. "With HIM, I feel at least somewhat more comfortable."

"Aww." Said Dustin. "So you do care about me."

Harrison squinted his eyes at Dustin as he watched Dustin walk to the table cheerfully to switch spots with Artemis.

"Sooo, Brycie." Said Dustin. "What is it that you want to tell us?"

"Cyrus Gold was more than a former business partner to me." Said Harrison. "He was my boss. As his partner and second in command, my responsibility was to oversee all operations that went in and out of The Bay while Mr. Gold would develop the plans and future operations."

"Sounded like you two were getting along just fine. What ended it?"

Bryce looked away for a second before looking back at Dustin to give him an answer.

"We sort of had…a disagreement."

"Disagreement?"

(Nereid) This guy obviously killed him.

(Requiem) I smell murder all over this guy.

"Let's just say, I didn't like the direction Mr. Gold was taking with the drug trade." Said Harrison. "So I did what any concerned partner would do, and I 'relieved' Mr. Gold of his position."

"In other words you murdered him and took his spot." Said Dustin. "Why am I not surprised? Listen Brycie, we don't have time to f%&amp;* with your bullshit all night, so fast forward your little murder story and TELL US WHERE YOU BURIED GOLD'S BODY!"

**Later…**

Outside of the SFPD Station, Dustin, Artemis and Jackson were finished interrogating Bryce Harrison and were now discussing their next plan.

"Alright Phantom." Said Artemis. "Listen up and listen good because I know you'll most likely forget if I don't EMPHASIZE it enough to you."

Dustin squinted his eyes at Artemis but continued to listen.

"The whole city has been evacuated to a different location so you won't have to worry about civilian safety anymore. So Nereid and I have decided to go back to the drug cartel's island and check out the swamp Harrison supposedly dumped Gold's body into."

"Why can't I come?" Replied Dustin. "You both know I'll totally find something like I always do."

(Nereid) He surprisingly has a point there.

"True…" Said Artemis. "But we need you to stay here with the police in case if Solomon Grundy decides to come back."

Dustin glares at a group of cops who were talking to each other but when the cops noticed him, they gave Dustin a dirty look and one of the cops even flipped him off.

"Fine." Said Dustin. "But you two better not screw around, I know how you two are when you're together."

(Nereid) What is he implying there?

(Requiem) Does he think?

Artemis and Jackson look at each other awkwardly and then kind of laugh.

(Nereid &amp; Requiem) No.

Artemis and Jackson leave to go back to the drug cartel island while Dustin sat there on the SFPD Station steps and waited. Dustin then looks over at the cops again but this time the cops were already staring at him and were secretly talking amongst themselves.

(Phantom) Something tells me I'm going to get an earful from them at some point. Ugh, where's my alcohol when I need it.

**Meanwhile…**

**San Jose Avenue, San Francisco **

The National Guard that was requested earlier was arriving onto the scene with four M1A1 Abrams tanks and several ground soldiers. Inside one of the tanks, a tank commander was talking to the radio.

"This is Niner 5 to San Francisco Police Department. Do you copy? We are on route to assist with your metahuman problem."

"HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!" Screamed one of the Tank commanders outside of the tank.

The tank commander gets off his radio and opens the hatchet to look out of the tank.

"What is it Spartan three?!" Asked the tank commander.

"Radar has picked up several life signs underneath the ground hoarding towards are direction!" Screamed the tank commander from Spartan Three.

All the tanks and ground troops stop and look around for targets.

"Spartan Three! Are you sure it's not just a hoard of rats?!"

"I don't know Niner 5 they're pretty strong compared to rat readings!"

"Check your radar scanners again Spartan Three! I want to make sure this situation isn't…!"

Then from the shadows of the highway, several vicious beings attack the ground troops and tanks. The ground troopers screamed in pain as they were torn to shreds by the hordes of vicious creatures.

"They're kill..KZZRT" Screamed one of the tank commanders in the rear of the group.

"Men!" Screamed the Niner 5 commander. "Divert to the rear and..!"

Before the commander could finish his order, a vicious zombie that Solomon Grundy had previously resurrected using his mystical powers, appeared in front of the tank commander of Niner 5 from the shadows above and tore his jugular off disturbingly with it's ravaging teeth. Inside the tank of Niner 5, the undead swarmed the inside and killed everyone who was in it viciously. As the undead carnage the interior of Niner 5, the radio began to receive a response from the San Francisco Police Department.

"This is the San Francisco Police Department, we copy Niner 5." Said a responder on the radio. "What is your position over?"

Outside of the tank of Niner 5, all the other tanks were being overwhelmed by the endless hoard of zombies and the zombies then began to move to a different location.

"Hello!" Screamed the responder on the radio again. "Niner 5 do you copy!"

**San Francisco Police Station**

Dustin was still outside on the staircase, waiting for something interesting to happen and even patted his knees while he did.

(Phantom) Damn. I am so bored right now. I know this is kind of f*$%ed but I actually kind of wish Grundy would come back already so I can kick the shit out of him and end this. That way I can finally go home and watch some Netflix and drink beer and who knows, maybe I'll try that trippy cartoon I keep seeing with the naked giant on the cover.

Dustin looked over at the cops again to see them still giving him dirty looks and even muttered to one and another as they glared.

(Phantom) Okay, I'm a man who's not afraid to openly talk to people if I feel like there is a problem. If I'm going to be able to do what I need to do, I need to make sure these pigs know I'm on their side.

"Yo!" Dustin hollered at the cops. "Do we got a problem? Because if we got a problem I'd like to hear why you got a beef with me?"

Dustin got up from his seat and walked towards the group of cops casually.

"Come on." Said Dustin. "Let me hear it."

All the cops glared at one another before one cop, going by the name Bartlby, steps in front of the group to face off with Dustin.

"Yeah, I got something to say Phantom." Said Officer Bartlby. "We don't need you or you're damn frikin friends! You're all nothing but a nuisance to this damn Police Department and you usually do more damage to the city than you do to the criminals."

Dustin raised his brow.

"Okay if you're referring to this morning's mishaps." Dustin replied. "I'll admit I was not on my A-Game but you know what, my friends and I still stopped the criminals. Something your boys couldn't do. And to top on that, name another time we've caused 'so much mishap' to your Department."

Officer Bartlby points at the half of the San Francisco Police Department that is completely burned down.

"You're blaming me for that!?" Dustin exclaimed. "That was totally the Hulk zombie's fault!"

(Phantom) Although now that I think about it, why didn't I just use my wraith ray to blast the fire hydrant when Grundy threw it at me? Damn it brain!

"Alright you know what, fine!" Said Dustin. "I know exactly what all of you want to hear from me. Yes, I am a lame superhero compared to others. Yes, I have not been always there for the most extreme times. AND YES, I know I am a huge F%$* up and I have known this since I started doing this shit…But you know what, despite my erred ways I have saved this city more times than all of you can probably think of."

"Really?" Officer Bartlby replied while also crossing his arms. "Care to share?"

"Remember the Johnson case two years ago?" Dustin asked with a smirk.

"You mean the crazy psycho that went on a murder spree for anyone by the name of Johnson and then for some reason one day turned himself in to the police station?"

"TT. Really? Is that what they told you? Do you have any idea how many phonebooks I had to go through to try and predict where that f #$*r was going to strike next? Luckily, on my forty-seventh attempt, AND YES! IT TOOK ME FORTY-SEVEN F #$ING TIMES TO TRY AND FIND THIS PSYCHO! I was finally able to take that meta-freak down."

"Meta what now?"

"Oh did you not know? That sucker was a meta-human, that dude literally had the ability to throw these gnarly ass spikes at people. Why he had the crazy obsession of killing people with the name Johnson was beyond me. But man you should have seen that fight. I took his ASS DOWN!"

All the police officers and especially officer Bartlby became startled and surprised by the recent new information they didn't know about.

"Wha-? Di-?" Uttered officer Bartlby. "Shut Up! Besides that case, name another time."

Dustin squints his eyes and sighs out disbelief.

"Really?" Said Dustin irritably. "Are we honestly going to play this game right now? Augh, okay, fine, you want another time? I'll tell you the greatest act I did for this city…you remember that shooting three years ago. The one with the school in Oakland?"

Every cop that heard Phantom, looked at him in shock and some of them knew exactly what Phantom did.

"That was you?" Said Officer Bartlby shocked. "You were the one that…"

Dustin cut Officer Bartlby off while also turning away from the cops so that they would not see the emotion on his face.

"Caught that disgusting creature and BROKE EVERY BONE FOR EVERY SOUL HE TOOK THAT DAY! ...Yeah, that was me. Listen, I know I seem like a wisecrack to most of you and you know what, that exactly how you should see me because I AM a wisecrack. But you know what, this wisecrack just so happens to like this city and he plans to stay in it. So whether you cops know it or not, this city is not as safe as it once was anymore and crime is only going to get worse from here on out. Which is why I have decided recently that I will not abandon this city anymore and I will help restore what has been lost to this once great area. Not matter how long it takes my team and I."

All the cops began to look at Phantom a little more positively now but Officer Bartlby then coughs as if he something to say.

"Yeah…" Said Officer Bartlby. "And where are you going to start?"

"BY FIRST BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF THAT DAMN ZOMBIE!"

Bartlby and the other cops cheered to Phantom's rage when suddenly a cop came running out of the station.

"We've lost contact with the National Guard!" The officer screamed.

All the cops began to worry when suddenly their attention was drawn to the streetlights in the distance. All the lights at the end of the street for some reason were shutting off one by one, allowing the darkness to consume the area head. Dustin squints his eyes and clicks something on his visor mask to see night vision. As soon as Dustin realizes what is causing the lights to shut off, he instantly turns off the night vision and looks at the officers.

"Hey. You guys are not going to like this." Said Dustin. "But if I'm not mistaken, we have a horde of undead zombies coming right at us."

"What?" Officer Bartlby asked. "What do you mean we have a horde of…"

"Zombies!" Screamed an officer near the barrier.

The streetlights that were near the officers by the barriers suddenly shut off, and several gun shot flashes appeared in the dark along with the sound of men suffering. Every cop that witnessed the lights shut off, trembled and backed up towards the station.

"Up above!" Screamed one officer.

Dustin and every officer look up at the rooftops and are instantly shocked to see hordes of zombies coming right at them.

"Run!" Screamed one officer.

"Run?" Said Dustin. "Come on now. How bad could these zombies really be?"

Two vicious zombies with razor sharp claws suddenly appear in front of the cop that Dustin had questioned, and then one of the zombies twists the cops head all the way around and rips it off. The other zombie grabbed the cop's body and began to devour the region where the head used to be. Dustin's eyes opened extremely wide and backed up toward the other cops.

(Phantom) I've seen some a lot of gnarly shit in my life…but that definitely made my top ten list of most f#&amp;*ed up things I've ever seen. I mean seriously, try getting that image out of your head for a week.

"Holy f#&amp;*!" Dustin screamed. "Did any of you just see that?! That zombie totally just tore that dude's f#&amp;*ing head off!"

"Pull back into the station!" Officer Bartlby screamed.

All the police officers retreated into the police station to take cover and hold down the fort. As Bartlby was helping other officers into the station, a zombie appears in front of Bartlby and strikes his arm. Bartlby falls down the steps and ends up surrounded by zombies.

"F#&amp;* me." Bartlby uttered. "I didn't think I was going to go out like this."

Before the zombies could strike Bartlby, the Phantom steps in front of Bartlby and began to use his wraith ray at all the zombies around them.

"Go!" Dustin screamed. "Get inside!"

Bartlby gets up from the ground and runs up the stairs to the police station door.

"What about you?!" Bartlby asked.

"What about me?" Dustin said with a grin. "It's time for me to go to work."

All the zombies attack Dustin and Dustin reacts by activating his energy in his fists and countered every attack with a lethal blow.

(Phantom) What's the best thing about fighting zombies?

Dustin then grabs a bus sign from out of the ground, twirls it around a little bit like a staff master and then points it at all the zombies with a grin on his face.

(Phantom) I don't have to hold back.

Dustin attacks the zombie horde with his bus sign weapon and began to take several zombies out by beating the shit out of them. Literally. As Dustin would hold off most of the zombie horde, Bartlby and the rest of the SFPD officers arm themselves with assault rifles and open fire on the zombie hordes to help the Phantom out.

"Come on you apes!" Bartlby screamed. "This lunatic is giving it all he's got to keep our ass's alive! The least we can do is return the favor!"

(Phantom) Aww. So they do care about me.

"Oh man." Said Dustin as he stabbed three zombies in the head with his sign like a shish kabob and then whacked several zombies away with them after. "This is actually really fun. Although, I'm not sure how long I'm going to be able to keep the majority away from the station. Dammit, what's taking those two so long?"

**Meanwhile…**

**(Former) Drug Cartel Island**

Deep in the former drug cartel island, Artemis and Jackson were walking together searching for the swamp that Solomon Grundy supposedly came from.

(Requiem) Ugh. I feel like we've been walking on this stupid island forever. Where is that damn swamp!? Although now that I think about it, we've been gone for quite some time and we did leave…Ugh saying his name already brings more stress to my head.

"I hope Dustin hasn't mouthed off or anything at the police while we've been gone." Said Artemis. "You know he's notorious for picking fight when see's one coming."

"Oh come on Artemis." Said Jackson. "I know he hasn't been on his BEST behavior recently. But I don't think he would be that dumb enough to pick a fight with the police."

Artemis stopped and glared at Jackson for a second.

"Jackson… We are talking about the same person who told me the other day that he felt like he was getting smarter off trivia crack."

Jackson turns around to talk but still continues to walk forward.

"Okay so maybe he might mouth off or maybe he won't! Why are you so more concerned about Dustin than finding…"

Jackson suddenly trips on a tree trunk and falls backward into what looks like to be a swamp.

(Nereid) The Swamp…

"Oh look, you found the swamp." Said Artemis with a smirk and then helps Jackson up.

Jackson spits some of the swamp water out of his mouth and then has a bad after taste.

"Yuk- this is definitely the swamp." Said Jackson.

"How do you know?"

"Well for one, the water definitely tastes like something died in it."

"And two?"

"Either the water is making me hallucinate, or does that look like a tiny old woman across the swamp?"

Artemis looks over at what Jackson was staring at and becomes shocked to see the tiny old woman as well.

"No Jackson. I see her too."

The old woman suddenly turns around and sprints away.

"HEY! STOP!" Artemis screamed.

Artemis and Jackson quickly sprint after the tiny old woman for a couple minutes before the woman finally reached what looked like to be her home, which was ruined down shack. The woman hides inside her shack and slams the door shut. Artemis and Jackson reach the door and Jackson knocks on the door.

"Hello?" Jackson asked. "Ma'am?"

"Go away!" Screamed the tiny old woman behind the shack door. "This is private property and I want you off my island!"

"Your island?" Artemis asked.

"YES!" Screamed the old tiny woman again. "MY ISLAND! Now go away before I turn you into something crazy."

(Requiem) Turn us into something crazy? Wait.

"Ma'am. We don't' want any trouble but if we can just have a few moments of your time, we'll leave this island and never come back."

"…You promise?"

"We promise." Said Jackson.

**LATER…**

Inside the tiny shack, the old tiny woman had Jackson and Artemis sit at a tiny table in front of a fire while she sat in her tiny chair and sipped her tea.

"Mmm..mmm. That's some good tea." Said the tiny old woman and sipped her tea again.

"Umm, Ma'am?" Jackson asked politely. "We were wondering if you can tell us who summoned…"

"Solomon Grundy?" The tiny old woman interrupted. "Yeah that was me." She answered so casually and sipped on her tea again.

"So it was you." Said Artemis. "Why did you summon Solomon Grundy to wreck havoc on San Francisco!"

"Wreck havoc on San Francisco?" The tiny old woman replied. "No, I didn't summon him to do that. I summoned him to kill that stupid man that tainted my drinking water."

"Stupid man?" Said Jackson. "You mean Bryce Harrison?"

"Yes that's the one. He tainted my drinking water with the body I used to create Solomon Grundy, so now he's paying the price with his life."

"Ma'am, I don't know if you knew this but because you created Solomon Grundy, many innocent lives were lost and injured today." Said Jackson

"And your going to be the one held responsible for it." Said Artemis.

The old lady cackled and then pulled out her wand.

"Please. You two don't have power over me here. But I will give you advice on how to defeat Solomon Grundy…YOU CAN'T."

"What!?" Both Artemis and Jackson screamed.

The old lady uses her wand to wave a spell, and for some reason Artemis and Jackson disappears, and ends up back in San Francisco over at the South Beach Harbor. Artemis becomes angry and kicks a bucket near her.

"Augh! Are you f%$*ing for real!" Artemis screamed.

"Not going to lie, that was a huge waste of time." Said Jackson. "But on the bright side, we're back in SF already."

"Yeah but now we know we can't beat Solomon Grundy. So what do we do now?"

The sound of an explosion is suddenly heard from the distance but then a familiar voice echoes after as well.

"Well it sounds like our friend Dustin is enjoying the acquaintance of the enemy." Said Jackson with a smirk. "Shall we join him?"

Artemis recovers from her frustration and then draws her long sword with a grin.

"Let's go have some fun Hyde."

**Meanwhile…**

Over at the SFPD Station, Dustin and the cops were still holding the fort down from the horde of zombies. Dustin still had his bus sign weapon, but it was slowly decaying.

"I'm not going to lie. I've played a lot of Nazi zombies in my day." Said Dustin. "But this is just overkill!"

Dustin looks to the right and notices more zombies coming right at him.

"Ugh!" Dustin complained as he rolled his eyes.

Before the zombies could even attack Dustin, the zombies were blind sided by two people.

"Well it's about damn time you two showed up!" Said Dustin.

The two people are revealed to be Jackson and Artemis, who were back to back with one another and sliced any zombie that opposed them. Artemis and Jackson then regroup with Dustin and the three together attack the oncoming zombie horde and drive it away from the SFPD station. Suddenly, the zombie horde ceases their pursuit on the station and retreats.

"Ah yeah!" Dustin screamed as he pelvic thrusts at the retreating zombies. "They don't want anymore of this."

Suddenly, a large roar is heard from across the city and the sound of something large sprinting is heard as well.

"I was wondering when he was going to show up again." Said Dustin. "So what did you two find out about Grundy?"

"We can't beat him." Said Artemis.

"Wow really?" Dustin replied.

(Phantom) You know I was actually kind of hoping they would have a solution for me.

"Well that's kind of shitty." Uttered Dustin.

"What's worse is that the person who was responsible for summoning Solomon Grundy," Said Jackson. "Was a tiny old woman who happened to be a witch."

Dustin turns around and glares at Jackson.

"Get the F*%$ out, are you serious?" Said Dustin. "Well that's the most random thing I've heard all day."

"So what's the plan you two?" Artemis asked. "I don't have any ideas when it comes to something we can't beat."

Suddenly, Solomon Grundy appears from the rooftops above and lands on the street hard to face off with the Rejects.

"I got one." Said Dustin.

(Nereid and Requiem) Here we go.

"Why don't we just try and cut off his arms and legs and then I'll just launch his torso into the direction of the moon. That way he'll be stranded on the moon, and he can't harm anyone."

"…That…" Stuttered Artemis. "Actually might be our best course of action for this scenario."

"What?" Jackson exclaimed.

"Yes! Now we're talking girl!" Dustin cheered.

"Think about it Nereid." Said Artemis. "The old woman said it herself, we can't beat him. So if he we can't beat him, we just…"

"Blast his ass to space!" Screamed Dustin and then flies up into the air. "I love it!"

(Requiem) I really hate it when he interrupts me.

"Come on Solomon Grundy!" Dustin screamed. "We're right here."

Solomon Grundy roars loudly and began to sprint towards the Rejects.

"Everyone knows the plan right?" Said Dustin.

Jackson pulls out his water sabers and Artemis draws her sword out to face off with Grundy.

"Dismember the bastard." Said Jackson.

"And send his ass to the moon." Said Artemis.

Dustin grins extremely devilish and activates his energy in his fists.

"Cool." Said Dustin. "Let's go play."

The Rejects spring out into action and attack Solomon Grundy head on into a gruesome fight. Solomon Grundy tries to swat Dustin with his monster hand but Dustin uses his intangibility to phase through the attack and then charges his fists with more power. Dustin launches at Solomon Grundy and then rapidly fires a barrage of punches into Grundy's body to drive him back. Eventually, Dustin pins Grundy to a wall and then presses off him with his feet to fly into the air.

"Now you two!" Dustin commanded.

Artemis and Jackson sprint over to Grundy and both try to dismember one of Grundy's arms. Grundy recovers from the attack however and rolls to his right to dodge Artemis's attack. Artemis growls to her missed attack. Grundy decides to attack Jackson head on by punching with both of his arms and Jackson quickly reacts by crossing his water sabers together to block the attack. Jackson directs both of Grundy's arms downward and then uses the opportunity he created to climb on top of Grundy's shoulder.

(Nereid) You want to know why I call them my Eel Tattoos?

Jackson quickly jabs the handles of his water sabers into the sides of Grundy's head and then activates his Eel Tattoos to a point where electricity began to appear.

"Alright Grumpy." Said Jackson. "Let's see how you feel about some electroshock therapy."

Jackson unleashes his Eel Tattoo's fury and electrocutes Solomon Grundy viciously. Grundy screams in extreme pain and extends his arms out as reaction to the electricity.

"Now Requiem!" Jackson screamed.

Artemis lets out a roar of her ancestors and strikes the left arm of Solomon Grundy with her long sword to slice it clean off. Grundy furiously rages to the loss of his arm and tries to punch Artemis with his right arm. Jackson falls off of Grundy due to the motion and rolls on the street before getting back up. Before Grundy could punch Artemis, Dustin stepped in front at the right moment to block the punch with his own punch.

**One minute earlier…**

Dustin was up in the air after he had kicked Grundy's chest and was now watching Artemis and Jackson attack Grundy.

"Now you two!" Dustin screamed.

As Artemis and Jackson dealt with Grundy, Dustin sets down on the ground to chill.

"Well, I see those two have everything under…"

Dustin notices that Artemis and Jackson were in trouble and will most likely need his help soon.

"Control…"

(Phantom) Damn, this guy is more annoying than a drunk guy at a bar who doesn't know when to quit after the first no. I don't usually get a chance to use my energy for lethal purposes because I'm not a killer. But for a guy who can't be killed…I'm willing to go a little farther than the usual.

Dustin powered up his right fist with an extreme amount of energy until he felt he was ready to strike Grundy.

(Phantom) Alright, as soon as Artemis finishes her strike. I'll come in there and…

Dustin notices Grundy shake Jackson off of him and was now about to strike Artemis.

(Phantom) Shit!

Dustin quickly gets in front of Grundy before he could punch Artemis, and uses the fist he had powered up earlier to punch Grundy's fist.

**Now…**

Dustin and Grundy's fists meet and a large power explosion occurs and causes the two to fly backwards. Dustin is slammed into a wall next to Artemis and Grundy is slammed into the dead center of a trolley bus. Grundy's hand that he had used to punch Dustin with had seemed to be blown off from the power explosion. Artemis and Jackson rush over to help Dustin up but Dustin reacts by getting up on his own while also grabbing his right hand.

"F*$%!" Dustin screamed. "That really F*$%in hurt!"

"How's your hand?" Artemis asked.

"I think I broke it. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be able to launch his ass to the moon still. However, if you two still have the energy, can you please cut his legs off? I would really appreciate it if he was a little lighter."

Artemis and Jackson smirk and pull out there weapons. Grundy notices the two coming and gets out of his spot.

"You hurt Grundy!" Grundy screamed. "Grundy going to make you unalive!"

The arm and hand that Grundy had lost earlier were starting to grow back slowly.

"He can regenerate?" Said Jackson.

"Whelp, then I guess will just have to butcher him faster." Said Artemis.

Artemis and Jackson quickly strike at Grundy but Grundy reacts by jumping into there in an attempt to smash them with his feet. Before Grundy could land on them, Dustin at the last moment wraps his left arm around Grundy's neck and pulls off what looked like to be a RKO. Dustin slams Grundy's head into the ground and then gets up to show boat.

"RKO!" Dustin screamed. "Straight outta nowhere!"

(Phantom) Randy Orton would be proud.

Because Grundy's head was in the ground, this allowed Jackson and Artemis the opportunity to finish the job.

"Now Nereid! Let's get him while he's down!" Artemis screamed.

Artemis and Jackson struck Grundy for the final time and dismembered Grundy's leg with single cuts. Dustin walks by Grundy's torso and grabs him by the chest to lift him up.

"Ah, much lighter now." Said Dustin. "Okay, I'll be back you two so be good, stay out of trouble…and oh, if you happen to see any of those zombie stragglers running about, feel free to kill them if you'd like. K bye!"

Dustin uses his super strength and flight to lift Grundy up and then flies directly into the sky while carrying him. Eventually, Dustin reached to the farthest he can fly to in the atmosphere and aimed Grundy towards the moon.

(Phantom) Okay so all I have to do now is throw him in mid air and then wraith ray him towards the moon. No problem. What could go wrong?

Dustin throws Grundy into the air and powers up his energy to blast him with his wraith ray. However, right before Dustin was to blast Grundy, he suddenly was caught off guard by a sneeze attack and sneezes. Dustin inaccurately fires his Wraith Ray at Grundy and accidentally blasts him into nothing but open space, not even close to the moon.

(Phantom)…Well shit, I f*#$ed that up on so many levels. Whelp, time to face the reality, I blasted Grundy deep into cold space and there is nothing I can do about that now. As for Jackson and Artemis, what's another "white lie" going to really do to them?

**Later…**

**Dustin's Pad 11:27p.m. **

Dustin, Artemis and Jackson are all out of their vigilante outfits and were now wearing what they would normally wear to bed, while watching the News on the couch.

_"…Yes I repeat, the meta-human crisis is over and Officials have given all citizens the Green Light to return home." _Said the Newswoman Anchor_. "The Meta-human, referred to as Solomon Grundy by SFPD Officials, was dealt with thirty-minutes ago thanks to the help of…"_

"The Rejects." Uttered Dustin.

_"…You guessed it, our brave Men and Women of the National Guard."_

"What!" Dustin screamed out of disbelief and then wraith rayed the TV after to destroy it. "What a load of bull!"

"Hey, you want to know what else is a load of bull?" Said Jackson. "We don't have a TV now."

Jackson got up from the couch and began to pour himself a glass of wine in the kitchen.

"Well SOR-RY!" Said Dustin. "But I don't know if you didn't just notice Jackson but the media really f*$%ed us over this time!"

"Who could blame them?" Said Artemis while reading a book to herself. "It wouldn't be 'good' News reporting if they started the Morning hating you and then in the Night kissing your ass."

"Agh! You know what! f*$% it!" Dustin raged as he stormed to the cellar in the kitchen and then returns with five bottles of champagne. "I've had with everyone's bull shit for one day and I've SERIOUSLY had it with random stupid bull shit happening to me. Feel free to join me if you want but I'm not stopping until all five of these bottles are finished."

Dustin opens one of the bottles of champagne and began to chug it aggressively. As Dustin downed the bottle, Artemis and Jackson both glare at the bottles of champagne on the counter and then at each other with a smirk.

(Nereid and Requiem) F*$% it.

**Two hours later…(And also four bottles deep)**

The lights in Dustin's pad were dim, as Dustin, Artemis and Jackson were all extremely wasted at the counter laughing.

"Augh man…" Dustin slurred. "I neva thot I wud see da…burp…day that you and you and…I! Wud be dis f*$%ed up togetha."

"Welp…" Said Artemis as she stumbled in her chair. "I tink sum one here haz had a bit to…urp…drink."

"Yur da one ta talk." Dustin replied and then looked at Jackson. "Ay Hyde, you…urp…said ya had somethin to ask me…urp…earlier."

"…Oh yah, dafuq were ya wearin at da Halloween party two ye-ars ago?" Replied Jackson. "Arty and I don't rememba."

"Two ye-ars?" Dustin said as he scratched his scruff. "Oh I totally rememba dat party! I went to dat one as a Spartan from 300, man waz that a nite!"

Artemis's joyful attitude goes away as a certain recollection of something Dustin said hit her hard.

(Requiem) Spartan outfit? No, maybe it's coincidental.

"But I think da best part of tha nite." Said Dustin. "Waz totally hookin it up with this extremely hot broad in a…

(Requiem) Oh Zeus, have mercy…

"…Black Canary costume."

Artemis became extremely horrified after finding out information didn't know about and slowly got up from her seat.

"Everything alright Artemis?" Jackson asked.

Artemis ignored Jackson's question by swiping the last bottle and then walked to her room silently while also downing the bottle.

"Watz up wit her?" Asked Dustin. "I haven't seen her down a bottle like dat since the other Halloween party? You know, the one where she got drunk and we found her…" The bottle that Artemis had downed was suddenly launched at the direction of Dustin but misses and smacks the already destroyed TV to make it even worse. Dustin and Jackson glare at the destroyed TV and then shrug their shoulders.

"Ah well, letz ask her in da mornin."

Dustin and Jackson continue to finish their drinks before Jackson stops and glares at Dustin.

"Yur goin to get a new TV tomorrow rite?" Jackson asked.

"Buddy…" Said Dustin. "I'll git us da best new mudda f*$%in TV."

**Will Dustin get the best new Mudda F*$%in TV?**

**Next Issue: I Remember My First Time**


	9. Update

As some of you may know, the New 52 has ended and Rebirth has now began for the DC Universe. So here's the thing, I'm going to hold off on updates for awhile because I'm going to try and rewrite the chapters and some of the other story archs I have in store to fit with rebirth. It might be awhile but I think it might be worth it.


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